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The latest update as of April 16, 2025

AI invades drag racing reporting

Check out the latest In Memoriam posting on the NHRA.com website. It's fairly accurate factually, but was either written by an AI content generator, or someone who doesn't know much about drag racing. Normally, these postings are written by National Dragster's Senior Editor, Phil Burgess, but this article about the passing of Rich Guasco was simply attributed to NHRA "Staff".

Compounding the poorly written article was the reposting of it on Competition Plus. The byline read by Bobby Bennett, but all he did was shorten the article, fix a few grammatical errors, but no attempt was made to convert the prose into something that would hold the interest of any serious drag racer or fan. All in all, a sad effort to memorialize a great, hard-core drag racer like Guasco.

IHRA follows through with two major track purchases

After a series of overly optimistic and premature announcements about the purchase of seven drag strips earlier in the year, the IHRA has legitimately finalized a deal for National Trail Raceway (Hebron, OH) and Milan Dragway (Milan, MI). The news first broke on the IHRA website, then was reported on Drag Race Central, but it's not yet been confirmed on the track websites. That's not surprising as most dragstrip websites are poorly maintained, if at all.

Further credence ro the purchase announcements was given by the almost simultaneous relocation of the JEGS NHRA Sportsnationals to South Georgia Motor Sports Park from it's previous home at National Trail Raceway. The bottom line is that it looks like things are starting to move forward at the IHRA as we count down the weeks until their first major event in late June, and their first national event in mid-July.

The latest update as of April 12, 2025

NHRA 4-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Here's the first batch of photos from Friday qualifying at The Strip. We've got an awful lot of pictures to go through, so it's going to be a while before we can fill in all the blanks on the captions, let alone get the balance of the pics posted.

PRO STOCK - Qualifying Session #1

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FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #1

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TOP FUEL - Qualifying Session #1

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The latest update as of April 7, 2025

NHRA 4-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

It's only two days until the start of the 24th annual NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at Las Vegas. It's the fourth of 20 national events on the Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series 2025 schedule, and the first of not two, but three four-wide events on the calendar in 2025. It was recently annnounced that in addition to the back-to-back 4-wide events at Las Vegas and ZMax Dragway (Charlotte, NC), there will be an additional four-wide race at Charlotte during the Countdown To The Championship in September.

There's full fields in most categories, with the resurgent Pro Stock class leading the way, at 22 drivers entered. Following close behind is Funny Car, which has 19 entries, and trailing is Top Fuel that will not have a full field, as just 15 racers are on the list. The other major dragster category, Top Alcohol Dragster, has 21 racers on the list, and for a pleasant change, eight cars will be running blown, on alcohol. That's one of the largest turnouts for the supercharged variety in the class in quite a while. Sadly, in Top Alcohol Funny Car, the small fields continue, with just nine drivers entered, for a 16-car field.

In total, there are 491 racers entered, with 405 of them in the Sportsman categories. That's a pretty healthy turnout and with a good weather forecast for the weekend, there should be quite a show at The Strip. Qualifying starts on Friday morning, continues through Saturday and eliminations start early on Sunday, with the Pro classes on deck for a noon start. With just three rounds of racing required at a 4-wide race for a 16-car field, it's a fairly compact show that is schedule to finish at 3:30 pm. Unlike the fall race at Las Vegas, there won't be any qualifying under the lights.

The latest update as of March 31, 2025

5th annual FUNNY CAR CHAOS Classic POSTPONED

"The Texas Motorplex and Funny Car Chaos & Nitro Chaos are in agreement that the safest and most responsible move is to postpone the Funny Car Chaos Classic due to severe thunderstorms in the forecast from Wednesday through Saturday of this week in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The event will now be held May 1-3rd. We apologize for any inconveniences this may cause and appreciate your support in this tough decision. Thank you and we'll see you...at the CHAOS!"

The latest update as of March 25, 2025

65th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals

The tire smoke has barely cleared from yesterday's test session at Firebird Motorsports Park, following the NHRA Arizona Nationals which concluded on Sunday. Now the travelling acceleration show heads a few hundred miles west to In-N-Out Burger Dragstrip at Pomona for the 65th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals. Entries for the event closed yesterday, for the event which starts on Thursday with a full day of qualifying for the Sportsman racers, followed by the Pro and Pro Sportsman classes on Friday.

While we still have a huge amount of work to do on our coverage of the NHRA Arizona Nationals, we received a large batch of photos from yesterday's test session. We'll try to get some of them posted this evening, but it's going to be a long week of slow progress on the website. As always: stay tuned!

Here's a few "chute shots" from our intrepid lensman, BIG Bob Snyder at the far end of Firebird raceway yesterday.

(LEFT) Testing out the fairly new combination was Cody Coughlin. He failed to qualify at the Arizona Nationals, but just missed the cut by one hundredth of a second with a solid 6.600 - 207.15 best in qualifying. Cody and crew made several passes in preparation for this week's Winternationals.

(RIGHT) Sophomore Pro Stock racer Brandon Foster was out testing too. He ran an abbreviated schedule in 2024, but the plan is for a full pull this year. He got his season off to a good start by making into eliminations, from the bump spot, with a good 6.590 - 207.40. He followed that up in the first round, leaving on Matt Hartford, but coming up half a car length short at the finish line.

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The latest update as of March 24, 2025

40th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals

While we still have most of the qualifying photos and captions to post, we're jumping ahead to Sunday's eliminations. As always, the day starts with the national anthem, with packed grandstands observing before the command to "Start Your Engines" rings out as we jump into the first round of Top Fuel.

TOP FUEL ELIMINATIONS - Round ONE

With only 14 cars entered, and the three lowest qualified cars in the 4- and 5-second zones, there were bound to be some rather lopsided matchups in the first round.

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FUNNY CAR ELIMINATIONS - Round ONE

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PRO STOCK ELIMINATIONS - Round ONE

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PRO MODIFIED ELIMINATIONS - Round ONE

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The latest update as of March 23, 2025

40th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals

We're going back to the first qualifying session(s) from Friday as we've finally received all the qualifying photos from our hard working photographer, Bob Snyder. It's going to take quite a while to go through all the raw material, and even longer to write all the captions to go with the photos. Stay tuned as we work our way through and keep checking back for updates to our NHRA Arizona Nationals report.

7:45 PDT UPDATE: We've got all the photos posted from the first round of qualifying in Funny Car, Top Fuel, Nostalgia Nitro Funny Car and Pro Modified. That's in addition to the second session for Funny Car that was posted yesterday. Next on the agenda will be the second go-round for Top Fuel and Pro Stock. Due to some serious delays caused by a few oildowns, the Pro Mods and Nostalgia Nitro Funny Cars didn't get a second shot at the track before things were shut down for the evening.

We'll be back at it tomorrow but it's going to take a few more days to fill in all the details from Friday's qualifying, let alone all of Saturday's action. At this point we don't have any eliminations photos but they should arrive sometime tomorrow. As always: STAY TUNED!

The latest update as of March 22, 2025

40th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals

The Arizona Nationals is well underway at Firebird Motorsports Park (Chandler, AZ). Two full sessions of qualifying for the PRO cars were completed yesterday, along with a single qualifying session for Pro Mod and the Legends (Nostalgia) Funny Car group. We've got HEAPS of photos from yesterday's second PRO session and will get at least a few of them posted today, with the balance coming tomorrow. Other obligations, i.e. "work" are using most of our time today. And as always: STAY TUNED!

FUNNY CAR QUALIFYING - Session #1

With 20 cars in the pits, expectations were high for some qualifying drama among the non full time racers. Of the 20 cars entered, 19 appeared for the first session under warm (80 F), dry (11% humidity) sunny skies. Corrected altitude was just under 3000 ft.

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That's it for Funny Car; Top Fuel is up next

TOP FUEL QUALIFYING - Session #1

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Up next is Nostalgia Nitro Funny Car qualifying

NOSTALGIA NITRO FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #1

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PRO MODIFIED QUALIFYING - Session #1

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FUNNY CAR QUALIFYING - Session #2

We're still waiting to receive photos from the first qualifying session, but technical difficulties on the other end (Phoenix) are delaying their arrival. The "bump" spot at the end of that first round of qualifying was a rather tepid 9.487 (Paul Lee), with the three alternates carding times that ranged from 9-seconds to 12-seconds plus. There were a total of eight complete - or mostly complete - runs in the session, with five of them producing 3-second times, led by Bob "Mr. MPH" Tasca with a 3.927 - 326.48 clocking.

(LEFT) After skipping the first session, Bobby Bode made a solo pass in Del Worsham's car. He immediately jumped into the field with a strong 3.931 - 323.25 effort, good for the #2 spot at the start of the session.

(RIGHT) Also running a solo when Terry Haddock's crew weren't able to finish prepping the car in time, was Blake Alexander. It's a familiar look wtth the "Pronto" wrap, but he's part of the Chad Green team now after parting ways with Jim Head in the off-season. He rebounded from a first session 9-second clocking to card a 4.201 - 237.30 on this run after dropping cylinders and losing traction at the 660' mark.

(LEFT) It's musical drivers in the "Nitro Moose" entry of the Winefsky family. With young Dylan still getting acquainted with the car, they put John Hale in the seat at the Las Vegas event in November. At this race, it's Jon Capps at the controls. He laid down a good burnout but the car wouldn't go into reverse, and after much effort by the crew and NHRA officials it was pushed back but too late to run.

(RIGHT) Patiently waiting for the "Moose" to get back to the starting line was Paul Lee. The extra running time didn't hurt at all as he took over the top spot in the field with an excellent 3.919 - 328.14 after a tire smoker in the first go round.

Two views of the Dave Richards car, burning out and launching hard. He had the misfortune of the chutes coming out early in the run but still was able to muster a semi-respectable 4.664 - 216.51 clocking.

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TOP FUEL QUALIFYING - Session #2

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PRO STOCK QUALIFYING - Session #2

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The latest update as of March 18, 2025

Busy few weeks coming up

This coming weekend sees the second of 20 events on the 2025 NHRA national event schedule. The 39th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals will be running at Chandler, AZ's Firebird Motorsports Park. With three of the four PRO classes (no Pro Stock Bike) in competition, plus the Pro Mods and six sportsman categories, it's bound to be a great show. Then it's a few hundred miles west to one of the most iconic facilities on the tour, the In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip, site of the 65th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals. While we won't have a presence at Pomona, our Southwest photographer, BIG Bob Snyder will be on hand for the entire Arizona event, providing us with all the action photos we can use.

And a week later, it's the season opener for the Funny Car Chaos and Nitro Chaos groups. The 5th annual Funny Car Chaos Classic at the Texas Motorplex (Ennis, TX). We'll have Bob Snyder, plus our Denver correspondent, Dale Fackler, and while he won't be working with us, our good friend Larry Pfister of Horsepower Heaven fame, currently shooting for Competition Plus. Larry's appearance will be the second stop on his 50th anniversary "Pfister Pfoto" tour around North America, as part of a major bucket - heck, call it a barrel - list. Stay tuned for all the photos - and more - that we can handle from The FCC event.

What in the heck is going on at IHRA ???

Less than two weeks ago, the biggest announcement in quite a few years from the International Hot Rod Association blasted through cyberspace, announcing the PURCHASE of seven race tracks, a number of which were sanctioned by the NHRA. Only a day before, their 2025 schedule was released, which included events at a number of those tracks, titled IHRA Delivers on Promise to Revive Professional Racing in 2025. Leading up to the big schedule announcement, one day before that release, was the relatively low-key announcement of IHRA President's Cup Nationals Returns to Maryland International Raceway.

While the first two announcements were plausible and welcomed by the racing community, the "IHRA and Owner Darryl Cuttell Announce Groundbreaking Acquisition of Seven Premier Drag Racing Tracks" announcement brought immediate fallout and denials, and an air of almost total disbelief by the drag racing community. At least those that were outside the ever-widening orbit of the "new" IHRA. A demand for a retraction of the purchase announcement came almost immediately from MIR (Maryland International Raceway), followed by denials of purchase agreements from several of the other properties quoted in the release.

Four days later, Competition Plus did a followup story on the IHRA, titled Regardless of what's on social media, IHRA is sticking to its statement. Then things quieted down for a full week with nothing emanating from the IHRA headquarters, before the latest Competition Plus article detailed in an article titled Don't be surprised if rejuvenated IHRA leans more into an entertainment approach.

The article is filled with direct quotes from IHRA CEO Christian Byrd that detail some "novel" approaches to the question(s) of how to improve the sport of drag racing. Unfortunately, most of them have very little to do with traditional drag racing. When the conversation touches on "We'll diversify into other forms of motorsports. I'll show that, whether it be on water or on snow, or snowmobiles on asphalt or dirt, we're looking at taking our facilities and turning them into playgrounds for car enthusiasts."

Hold on, he's just getting started. In the next paragraph, he goes worldwide with "We're definitely looking closely at international expansion from our sanctioning body side to do more of the better tracks, whether we look to Australia, to Europe, Canada, and Mexico," Byrd explained. "All these things are on the table. So we're really looking at a global perspective, eventually, and being a world leader in racing." You'll have to go to Competition Plus to read the whole article as it does go on quite a bit after the quotes presented here. Just take much, if not all that you read with a grain or possibly a shaker full of salt.

From this point on, let's just wait until the first "scheduled" national event actually takes place. It's on the IHRA calendar as happening on June 13-14 at a TBA location, with the type of event TBA, and the event title.... TBA. Then, two weeks later, the IHRA Night of Fire at Galot Motorsports Park (Dunn-Benson, NC) is next on their agenda. The countdown clock is ticking......

The latest update as of March 11, 2025

Couldn't see this coming... or could we?

After the BIG announcements last week from the IHRA, I was somewhat skeptical of just how true the "acquisitions" of seven tracks, mostly NHRA sanctioned, were factual. Today's feature story on Drag Illustrated's Crew Chief Daily bulletin contradicts most, but not all, of the claims by the new IHRA president, Darryl Cuttell.

A separate article in the same bulletin details a response from one of the tracks involved in this "premature purchase" announcement Maryland International Raceway Clarifies Track Not Being Acquired by IHRA.

Despite requests for comment from IHRA, they have not responded to Drag Illustrated, or clarified any of their previous claims on the IHRA website. There's certainly more to this story coming soon, but for now, we'll just have to put it down to an over-exuberant new management at the International Hot Rod Association. Stay tuned for more, possibly much more on this story in the coming days and weeks.

Now let's get back to what was originally planned to be the focus of today's "What's New" update.

Post Race Gatornationals News

Before we get into some of the details and recaps of what happened over a very long and drawn out weekend at Gainesville Raceway, we've found an explanation for the disqualification of Angelle Sampey before the first round of eliminations in Top Alcohol Dragster. During a standard fuel temperature check in the staging lanes, her fuel was found to be colder than the minimum 50 (F) allowed for the class. Here is her explanation for the DQ.

Tough start to the year in Gainesville. After qualifying 7th with a 5.272 at 264.40, we were unable to make the run during the first round of eliminations due to having fuel that was tested under the minimum required temperature for our class. The NHRA 100% made the right call and we would expect them to do the same for others in violation. To be clear, the temperature was significantly under the minimum.

This wasn't an attempt to run right at 50 degrees for max performance, but rather a bad estimation on our part. To clear up speculation, it's pretty straightforward what happened. We are still running the original Top Fuel fuel tank in the car in the short term as we wait to take inventory of a smaller, purpose built A/Fuel fuel tank that includes an access hole for a temperature probe that regulates our fuel chiller's output.

With the current tank, we run approximately 5 gallons less fuel than what it is capable of holding and there is not an access hole to get our chiller's temperature probe into where the fuel sits. This probe regulates the overall operation of the chiller and stops the chilling process when the fuel gets to a predetermined temperature. Our current option to chill the fuel with this tank requires the chiller to run unregulated and we then estimate if it's close to 50 degrees by pulling fuel from the main fuel line supply to test it.

We knew it wasn't going to be 1:1 with the temperature of what was circulating in the tank, but we definitely did not expect that much of a difference. As mentioned above, we missed, that's on us, and we own it. We're working on alternative ways to monitor this until the new fuel tank arrives and we are ready to get this thing back on track in a couple days in Belle Rose, Louisiana.

The event at Belle Rose that she refers to is the first Central Region NHRA Lucas Oil Series Regional event of the season, running on Friday and Saturday of this week. We're more than quite sure that there will never be a repeat of this mistake by the Hangsterfer - Michalek Racing team in the future.

The latest update as of March 8, 2025

IHRA makes a series of BIG announcements

Following a long silent spell on their website, the International Hot Rod Association made a flurry of announcements over the last two days. First up was the resurrection of the President's Cup Nationals event, scheduled for August 8-9 at Maryland International Raceway (Mechanicsville, MD). While the track is not on the IHRA list of "partner" tracks, the event is posted on the track's website. Almost simultaneously, the BIG announcement of a series of National, Nitro Jam, and Pro-Am events, ten in total, was posted on the IHRA website.

Yesterday brought what could be the biggest announcement of all, the "purchase" of seven race tracks, including two currently NHRA-sanctioned facilities, National Trail Raceway and Milan Dragway. The other properties announced for acquisition by IHRA were Darlington Dragway, Dragway 42, Kil-Kare Raceway, Galot Motorsports Park, and Maryland International Raceway. New IHRA owner Darryl Cuttell phrased the purchases in several different ways in the media release.

The headline read "Groundbreaking Acquisition of Seven Premier Drag Racing Tracks". In the first paragraph of the story read "the organization has agreed in principle to purchase seven premier drag racing tracks". The balance of the release veered off in different directions, talking about a new digital platform (IHRA TV), "partnerships with some of the most successful and popular racing series in the entire world". "These events will combine music, entertainment, and All-American family fun!".

The release closes with the seriously optimistic statement that "IHRA is revolutionizing motorsports by integrating competition, entertainment, and media innovation, to create unparalleled experiences for both racers and fans. "We look forward to revolutionizing racing and the continued growth of a legendary company," Cuttell said. "As we head into the future, we are committed to making drag racing fun again!"

It will be interesting to see how, or if, these grandiose visions all come to fruition. Whatever the result, it will be interesting to watch it all unfold.

The latest update as of March 6, 2025

OOPS!..... My Bad....

My reporting on last week's "Baby Gators" event at Gainesville Raceway contained numerous references to record setting - AND - backup runs required to certify them. Apparently the 1 percent "backup" run required was eliminated just over NINE years ago. With the full adoption of laser activated timing systems, the margins for errors in e.t.'s and speeds have been reduced to practically zero.

While the records set at the Baby Gators event weren't affected by the change, today in the first qualifying session of the Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals the national e.t. record for Top Alcohol Funny Car broken again. You get only one guess as to who is the "new" holder at 5.317 seconds. Of course it was Sean Bellemeur in the runaway "Pirate Ship" of the "Killer B's" (Bartone, Boggs & Bellemeur). The speed on that run was "only" 278.29, and not even close to the new-ish record of 281.42 mph set last weekend. The adjusted altitude today was 763 feet, and the air temp was 66 (F), conditions conducive to very quick runs.

We can only wonder what the rest of this week's event will produce in the way of new records in the class. Interestingly, the Top Alcohol Dragster session saw veteran Jackie Fricke in the John Finke-tuned A/Fuel Dragster lay down a career best e.t. and speed of 5.130 - 284.33. The half track speed was an amazing 235.68 mph. It was very good to see that hard working team achieve such a result.

We'll have more to report about the event throughout the weekend. Stay tuned!

The latest update as of March 4, 2025

Another announcement of what could be a quite Heritage Series show with something extra later this year. Just announced on the NHRA website are some of the details for this year's 34th annual California Hot Rod Reunion at Bakersfield's Famoso Dragstrip. Check out the full story on the NHRA.com website.

NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion, Nitro Revival will unite for spectacular event

67th annual Good Vibrations Motorsports March Meet

The gates at historic/iconic/famous Famoso Dragstrip for the March Meet, and test 'n tune sessions start bright and early tomorrow morning.

The latest update as of March 3, 2025

Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals Preview

The entry deadline for the event arrived earlier today and sadly there are only nine Top Alcohol Funny Cars entered. Three injected on nitro and six utilizing convential blown alcohol engines. The news isn't much better for the dragsters are just 12 cars are entered, only one of which is running supercharged. What used to be a well attended exciting season opener for the Pro Sportsman racers has fallen off badly. Other than the pandemic affected 2020 race, which also drew just 12 dragster competitors, there have been full and overflowing 16-car fields all the way back into the 1990's.

At least there are full fields in all the PRO categories, with Top Fuel seeing 17 entries, despite the loss of 2024 regular competitors Tony Schumacher and Ida Zetterstrom, Billy Torrence. Also conspicuous by his continued absence is Mike Salinas. In the Funny Car class, there's 18 drivers, including newcomer to the class, Canadian Spencer Hyde (driving the Jim Head entry). Still missing from the action are the two senior members of the JFR team: John Force and Robert Hight.

In the Pro Stock ranks, there's a bumper crop of 21 entrants, and 19 in the Motorcycle category. Rounding out the group are the ever popular Pro Mods, with 23 competitors entered. That total was bolstered by the late entry of last year's season champion, Canadian Jordan Lazic and his teammate Justin Bond, who are competing despite the very recent and very sudden loss of their Middle-Eastern sponsorship.

Qualifying commences for the PRO cars on Friday, with two sessions, and wraps up Saturday with two more rounds. NHRA has gone back to the four qualifying session scenario for all events this year, with the exception of three sessions at the Virgina Nationals, and the traditional five at the U.S. Nationals.

The latest update as of March 1, 2025

"Baby Gator" News

The first shoe dropped in what could be the story of the year in Top Alcohol Funny Car. The longstanding, since March 2018, top speed record in TAFC, held by Annie Whiteley was broken during qualifying yesterday at Gainesville Raceway. After the otherworldly performance of the Boggs, Bartone & Bellemeur" "Pirate Ship" at a test session at that same track last month, it was expected that the "Killer B's" would be the first to smash the speed record.

Despite recording a speed of 281.42 mph in the final qualifying session, driver Sean Bellemeur wasn't able to back it up within the required 2 % window. His earlier speeds of 275.73 and 276.41 fell just short of the required 278.60 mph to certify the record. So who did break the record? It was Mick "The Real Deal" Steele, as his first qualifying session speed of 277.15 was backed up by the second session 275.56 to give him the record. It might not hold up through eliminations though, as Bellemeur could run fast enough - or faster - to raise the mark over 280-mph.

Additionally, both Steele and Bellemeur have a chance to back up their qualifying e.t.'s, which are both under Bellemeur's current record, set six yearsd ago, of 5.352. Bellemeur's 5.330 and Steele's 5.339 are both below that standard, and they both came close to backing up those e.t.'s during qualifying. If conditions stay conducive to good performances today and the racers remain consistent, we could see some serious history being written. How that will affect the class as a whole remains to be seen, but this weekend will be the first shot in what might be a protracted war between the blown and injected factions in the "Alcohol" Funny Car world.

Stay tuned for more developments later today.

9:30 AM UPDATE: There is now a new elapsed time record in Top Alcohol Funny Car. In the first round of eliminations at the Southeast Division - East Region event at Gainesville Raceway, Sean Bellemeur backed up his low qualifying e.t., 5.330, with an almost as quick 5.349 to validate the record. However, his speed on the run, 271.30, wasn't anywhere near what was needed to back up a possible new speed record. Interestingly, Mick Steele ran another big speed of 276.52 to add to his accomplishments for the event. Both racers advanced to the semifinals so they have at least one more chance to reset the records, and possibly two if they meet in the final round later today.

8:00 PM UPDATE: It's now official that Sean Bellemeur owns both ends of the Top Alcohol Funny Car records. He set the e.t. mark with a 5.330 during qualifying, and backed that up with a 5.349 in the first round of eliminations. The speed record that was set on Friday by Mick Steele was erased when Bellemeur went across the finish line at 280.78 mph in the semifinal round, after putting up a 281.42 mph pass during qualifying. Quite a start for the "Killer B's" and if they can match or better those numbers at next week's Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals, then there will be some very serious looks at the rules package by the NHRA Competition Committee.

The latest update as of February 27, 2025

BUSY weekend coming up

And next week will be even busier. Let's start with the World Series of Pro Mod which is underway at Bradenton Motorsports Park. In fact, they've been testing for the past three days, but today they start getting serious with two qualifying sessions. That's followed by tomorrow's three sessions, and it wraps up on Saturday with five rounds of eliminations for the 32-car field. It's being broadcast on FloRacing.com, and reports are being posted on DragRaceCentral.com.

Simultaneously, there's an NHRA race just a few hundred miles north from Bradenton as the Division 2 - East Region event is underway at Gainesville Raceway. It's the "Baby Gators", the lead-in to next week's NHRA national event season opener, the 56th annual Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals. This week's event is being broadcast for free on NHRA.tv and can also be seen on their YouTube channel.

Somewhat further afield, actually on the other side of the world, a National Drag Racing Championship event is being held at Perth, Australia's Perth Motorplex as the Westernationals kicks off tomorrow. Due to the extreme distance from the major population centres on the east coast of the country, the Top Fuel field is expected to be no more than cars, but Top Doorslammer (aka: Pro Mod) will see more than a dozen entries, and Top Fuel Motorcycle is also on the schedule.

One more race note: the Good Vibrations Motorsports March Meet is on at Bakersfield, CA's Famoso Dragstrip. Unfortunately, we won't have a photographer on hand for the event, but we'll be avidly following the event on the internet through Drag RaceCentral.com. At this time, we're not sure if it will be broadcast anywhere. Fingers crossed though.

The latest update as of February 23, 2025

Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series West Region event at Firebird Motorsports Park (Chandler, AZ)

To see the qualifying story and photos, skip down to yesterday's report.

TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER - Eliminations Round ONE

After three rounds of qualifying on Friday, the "Quick 8" faced off in eliminations. The field was bunched tightly, between Madison Payne's 5.175 and Braiden Chesleigh's bump spot 5.304. Falling just short of making the show was veteran Mike Austin, who made his best run in quite a few years at 5.318 - 270.59. For a change of pace, five of the eight qualifiers were running a blown alcohol setup, and exactly half of the racers entered (6 of 12) were running a blown alky combination.

(LEFT) Eliminations started with the #4 and #5 qualifiers facing off. In the near lane, Casey Grisel slowed from his qualifying pace, but a solid 5.312 - 277.66 was just enough to hold off Joey Severance in the far lane. It was close at the finish line, but Severance's slightly slower 5.328 - 270.81 left him less than half a car length behind at the finish line.

(RIGHT) Low qualifier Madison Payne (near lane) had a definite advantage over #8's Braiden Chesleigh in the far lane. Chesleigh left first, but went into almost instantaneous tire smoke and slowly rolled to a 13-second clocking. Taking full advantage of his plight, Payne pounded out a consistent 5.241 - 278.63 for the easy win.

Next up were a pair of blown cars, with (relative) newcomer Jon Bradford in the near lane against Shaunda Blinzler in the far lane. Bradford was nearly a tenth quicker than Blinzler in qualifying, but didn't really need all that performance edge when Blinzler finally broke the beams with a nearly comatose .518 reaction time. She gave up a futile chase at half track, stopping the timers with a 6.233 - 152.54 clocking that was far behind Bradford's very quick 5.213 - 277.66 winning effort.

(LEFT) Back after a nearly year-long absence on maternity leave, Taylor Januik laid down a hard burnout in her "Red Line Oil"-backed entry. She qualified in the #7 position with a strong 5.297 - 273.66 pass.

(RIGHT) The final pair of the first round matched another pair of blown cars, with Jaunik in the near lane, and 2024 World Champion Shawn Cowie in the far lane. Nearly a tenth of a second separated them in qualifying, but it was a different story in eliminations. Cowie left first by just a few thousandths (.004), but started to fall behind at the 60' mark as he went into heavy tire shake. He was able to pedal and get the car to hook up but his 5.372 - 276.52 wasn't enough to keep pace with Januik's superior 5.299 - 271.19 mph effort.

TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR - Eliminations Round ONE

With four of the top seven Funny Cars in the 2024 season competing, joined by two returning veterans, and one rookie, competition was guaranteed to be intense, especially in the semifinal and final rounds. One racer, Kirk Kuhns, broke during qualfying on Friday and was unable to appear, making for two bye runs for the first round. One interesting sidenote gleaned from the NHRA.tv broadcast was that Madison Gordon was driving an all-new car, while Steve Gasparelli was in last year's Gordon family car, that finished #2 in the Top Alcohol standings.

(LEFT)) Leading off the show, Annie Whiteley nearly matched her low qualifying 5.454 e.t. with a very good 5.496 - 267.16 on her bye run. That set her up to face either Brian Hough or Ray Martin in the second round; neither of them an easy opponent.

(RIGHT) In the first pairing of eliminations, Maddi Gordon (near lane) took on Steve Gasparelli (far lane) and what looked to be an easy win for the "BETA" team turned into a pedalfest as both drivers shook the tires just past the 60' mark. Gordon recovered first and started to pull away before half track until Gasparelli lifted and coasted across the line at 6.672 - 178.52. Gordon kept the hammer down and rang up a 6.174 - 253.90 that showed she could pedal an errant funny car like a veteran.

(LEFT) Taking full advantage of the absence of scheduled opponent (Kirk Kuhns), Steve Macklyn ran just a hair quicker than his #3 qualifying 5.546, this time carding a 5.544 - 258.47 to advance to the semifinal. Every run Macklyn made to this point was a little bit quicker than the previous effort, as the team was getting on top of the tuneup.

(RIGHT) The final pair of the round featured the the two closest qualified cars, the #5 Ray Martin (near lane) matched up against #4 Brian Hough in the far lane. They were only a few hundredths apart in qualifying and they stayed that close on this run until half track before Hough started pulling away. Martin slowed on the top end, with a lot of smoke out of the engine near the finish line before stopping the clocks at 5.646 - 257.58. Taking the winlight after overcoming a small holeshot was Hough with a superior 5.528 - 263.72 pass.

TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER - Eliminations Round TWO

(LEFT) The semifinal round featured a pair of injected cars and a pair of the blown variety. First up were the A/FD's with Madison Payne in the near lane, facing Casey Grisel in the far lane. It was quite a race as Payne left first with a perfect (.000) reaction time to take an instant half a tenth lead over Grisel. However, Casey had erased that margin by the time they passed the 60' clocks and he continued to stretch it as Payne's car dropped cylinders and laboured down to the finish line with an off-pace 5.787 - 239.74 pass. Running away from her was the Grisel & Darien car with their quickest run of the weekend, a 5.223 - 278.00 for the win.

(RIGHT) Closing the round were the blown cars of Jon Bradford (near lane) and Taylor Januik in the far lane. Launching with a torque converter, Bradford left first and blitzed the 60' timers with an .892 short time to open an instant gap on Januik. She managed to stay close to Bradford until the 1000' clocks before getting too close to the centerline and being forced to pull the chutes earlier. The clocks read <5.435 at only 218.83 in Januik's lane, while Bradford laid down another quick pass of 5.254 - 275.56 to advance to the final.

TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR - Eliminations Round TWO

(LEFT) Coming into the round with lane choice, Annie Whiteley (near lane) a small e.t. advantage over Brian Hough in the far lane. Whiteley left first and held the lead until the 330' mark when she was forced to pedal the car to calm it down. For there it was all Hough as he extended his lead all the way to the finish line, where he stopped the clocks with a solid 5.563 - 265.53 winning time. Whiteley coasted across the stripe with a slowing 6.040 - 200.86 in the losing cause.

(RIGHT) The second pair of the round put on a barn burner of a race, with Maddi Gordon (near lane) facing Steve Macklyn in the far lane. The drivers left almost together (.050 to .051 r.t.'s), and from there to the finish line it was a side-by-side race. Macklyn was in front by three hundredths at 330', two hundredths at the 660', and at the 1000' mark he was in front by just one thousandth of a second. From there to the finish line it was all Gordon as she crossed the finish line nearly 10 mph faster, turning a winning time of 5.511 - 267.22 to Macklyn's excelent, but losing, 5.543 - 258.42 effort.

TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER - Eliminations FINAL Round

As mentioned in an earlier report, our correspondent wasn't able to stay for the finals, so we've had to construct the report from the NHRA.tv video. First up was the dragster final, with Jon Bradford burning out first in the blown alcohol entry, while Casey Grisel followed suit with his injected nitro ride. When the ambers flashed, it was all Bradford, as he left first, blasted out an .887 short (60') time, then opened the gap to more than a tenth of a second by the 330' timers. Grisel closed the gap slightly in the mid-range but it was more than a car length between them at the finish line. Bradford's winning 5.195 - 278.46 easily covered Grisel's valiant 5.254 - 276.97 effort.

TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR - Eliminations FINAL Round

The final race of the event featured the #2 qualifier Maddi Gordon, against #4 Brian Hough. Following their nearly synchronized burnouts with a great race. Hough gave it his best shot, leaving first with an .022 to .038 reaction time advantage, but Gordon eked out a small lead by the 330' mark. She increased the margin to half a car length as they neared the top end before Gordon's winlight came on with her best of eliminations 5.471 - 266.85 that was just enough to hold off Hough's best run of the weekend, a 5.511 - 267.64 effort.

The latest update as of February 22, 2025

Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series West Region event at Firebird Motorsports Park (Chandler, AZ)

The first Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event of the 2025 season kicked off on Thursday under sunny skies in Chandler, AZ. The first day was qualifying for the Sportsman racers and a test session for the Top Alcohol competitors. Friday saw three qualifying sessions for the alky cars, and today (Saturday) is eliminations for them. A total of 12 dragsters and seven funny cars filled the pits and put on quite a show, with some very quick passes. The bump spot for the dragsters was a very quick 5.304, with first alternate Mike Austin just a few ticks behind at 5.318. In a change from the usual injected nitro domination, seven of the 12 cars were running blown alcohol combinations, and five of them qualified for eliminations.

There were no injected Funny Cars in the pits, as to this point, only four of that breed have been in competition, and none of them are based in the western half of the continent. With only seven floppers appearing, there was no bump spot, but the top five cars were in the 5.50's, and the "slowest" car in the field, Steve Gasparelli, was in with a respectable 5.896 e.t. That marked his first appearance as a driver in several years. Missing from the show were a couple of regulars from last season, as Arizona's Hunter Jones, and California's Will Martin have run out of the essential ingredient required to campaign their cars: MONEY.

TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #1

(LEFT) Two familiar faces started qualifying, with Utah's Steve Macklyn in his "B&J Transmissions" sponsored entry in the near lane, while the "rookie", Kirk Kuhns lined up on the far side. Macklyn last competed in NHRA racing in 2021, running twice that year before moving over to the Mid-West Drag Racing Series for the past few years. He laid down a solid opening lap of 5.778 - 246.80 to show that the car could run well. Making his debut in the TAFC class, Kuhns put down a decent 5.830 - 241.41 to get his weekend started on the right note.

(RIGHT) Here's a closer look at Macklyn as he passed our photographer at about 150' off the starting line.

(LEFT) Also returning to NHRA after a three year hiatus was veteran Steve Gasparelli, in a new unlettered 2022 Camaro. The only names on the car were Gasparelli and a tribute to the recently deceased Bob Miner. He launched softly and shut off early to a 'getting acclimated" 6.318 - 161.50 pass.

(RIGHT) Showing that she was ready to compete for another Top Ten spot in the standings, Annie Whiteley ripped off a very strong 5.483 - 266.69 to stake a solid claim for the top spot in the field.

(LEFT) Racing in the lane opposite to Whiteley, was Alaskan Ray Martin in the "Miner Brothers" entry. He ran into trouble before the 330' mark and coasted down the track to a 9.241 - 93.32 to open his weekend.

(RIGHT) Laying down a solid burnout in her newly wrapped "BETA" entry, the 2024 world championship runner-up Maddi Gordon was ready to pick up where she left off at the end of last season. After a decent leave, she ran into tire shake early and pedalled her way to a mediocre (for the Gordon family team) 5.989 - 255.73 pass.

TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER - Qualifying Session #1

(LEFT) You might think this is a shot of Mitch Myers doing his burnout. Unfortunately, it was the launch as he went into instant tire smoke and slowly rolled down track to a 16-second elapsed time.

(RIGHT) After just missing out on a Top Ten finish and ending up #12 in the 2024 standings, the Casey Grisel driven, Jerry Darien tuned machine posted a big mph (225.52) at half track, but only a so-so e.t. of 5.397, coupled with a strong 275.62 mph speed at the finish line. That put them #4 on the ladder, but with two strong pairs of cars left in the staging lanes, he would almost certainly drop a spot or three before the session ended.

(LEFT) After a successful entry to the class last season, Tucson's Jon Bradford laid down a very quick and fast 5.224 - 277.03 pass to grab the early pole position in the field. The car leaves with very good reaction times, .018 on this run, and very quick 60' times, .898 on this pass.

(RIGHT) Running in the final pair of the round, the 2024 World Champion, Canada's Shawn Cowie picked up right where he left off and blasted out a top qualifying 5.216 - 278.52 to grab the #1 spot from Jon Bradford. After Cowie ran a 5.220 - 276.52 yesterday in testing, he picked up a little bit in his first competition pass of the year.

TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #2

(LEFT) The #3 Top Alcohol Funny Car in the world last year, driven by Brian Hough didn't run well (13-second e.t.) in the first session, so he got the "honour" of going first in the second qualifier. He didn't have much better luck, and after a decent .940 short time, shook the tires, pedalled and failed to get the car to hook up before giving up on the run and crossing the finish line with a 7.415 - 151.09 showing up on the scoreboard.

(RIGHT) After a less than successful run in the opening round of qualifying, Ray Martin took another shot at the track and ran very strong for 200' before going into heavy tire shake, forcing him to abort the run and coast across the finish line at 7.546 - 132.00 mph.

(LEFT) After an opening pass of 5.778, Steve Macklyn picked up the pace considerably on his second go-round, stopping the timers with a very nice 5.565 - 257.43 result. That moved him up to #3 on the qualifying list.

(RIGHT) Closing out the session was Kirk Kuhns, and he stutter stepped on the launch (1.111 60' time) and slowed a tenth to a 5.938 - 233.52 pass to remain in the #4 position on the ladder.

TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER - Qualifying Session #2

(LEFT) With the bump spot already sitting at 5.456, Madison Payne and crew chief Dana Hopewell knew they had to step up big-time to ensure a spot in eliminations on Saturday. The result was closer to what they wanted, with a 5.331 - 278.12 result to move into the field in the #6 position. With ten more cars in the lanes awaiting their chance, the e.t. wasn't certain to even keep them in the field.

(RIGHT) Running by himself was Mike Austin, as scheduled opponent (Chris Demke) decided to sit out the session after going off the end of the track in the first qualifying session. Austin was sitting at the bottom of the 12-car list, and needed at least a 5.391 to scrape into the qualified field. He did the deed, with a quick 5.318 - 270.59 coming up on the timers, bumping Casey Grisel out of the field, and landing Austin in the #6 spot.

(LEFT) Needing to knock more than a tenth on his earlier 5.456 e.t., Randy Eakins looked good for the first few hundred feet, but fell off by half track and crossed the finish line at 5.574 - 245.81 as he slipped down the list to the #10 position.

(RIGHT) Another of the strong running blown alcohol cars in the field, Shauna Blinzler was solidly qualified in the #5 spot after her first session 5.312 effort, but fell back quickly on this attempt, giving up before half track and coasting to a 5.938 - 183.15 timeslip.

(LEFT) Backing up her previous 5.297 run, Taylor Januik pushed the "Plan B" car to an almost as quick 5.315 - 273.66 to remain in the #4 spot going into the final qualifying session.

(RIGHT) Already sitting at the top of the list, Shawn Cowie not only backed up his first qualifying pass, but bettered it, albeit slightly, in both speed and e.t. The scoreboard shone brightly with a 5.205 - 278.63 glowing brightly in the late afternoon sun.

TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #3

(LEFT) There wasn't any drama going into the final qualifying session for the funny cars, as they were all guaranteed a spot in eliminations. Leading off the session was Ray Martin, in the Greg Miner-owned '24 Camaro. After a pair of troubled runs, 7-and 9-second e.t.'s, the team got it figured out with a strong 5.581 - 263.77 that was good enough to place them 4th on the ladder.

(RIGHT) Getting quicker with each run, Steve Macklyn posted his best numbers of qualifying with a strong 5.546 - 257.33 to hang on to the #3 spot in the field and lane choice in the first round. It appeared that he wasn't driving the car all the way to the finish line as he was under 260 mph on all three qualifying attempts.

(LEFT) Another racer who was having a tough time of it in qualifying, Brian Hough finally got it together and pushed past Martin and Macklyn to take over the #4 rung on the ladder. After 13- and 7-second runs, the "Cascade Motor Coach" crew made a clean strong pass of 5.558 - 265.22 as everyone breathed a huge sigh of relief at their change of fortune.

(RIGHT) Running by herself with the odd number of cars in the field, Annie Whiteley upped the ante as she improved on her low qualifying 5.483 e.t. by running even quicker at 5.454 - 267.75 to give her a full tenth of a second cushion over the #2 qualifier, Maddi Gordon.

(LEFT) Closing out the session was Maddi Gordon, who was looking to take over the top spot in the field.

(RIGHT) After the burnouts were completed, Steve Gasparelli, in the near lane, lined up against Gordon in the far lane. Gordon left first and ran away from Gasparellit at all points down track before turning on the scoreboard with a very good 5.471 - 260.56 result. It wasn't quite enough to grab the #1 spot on the ladder but it might have been closer if Gordon hadn't lifted a little early, as evidenced by her 260 mph speed.

TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER - Qualifying Session #3

(LEFT) Strangely enough, this pair didn't show up on the NHRA Divisional Live Timing Results page, but we were able to deduce the results by watching the race on NHRA's TV and YouTube channels. In the near lane, Randy Eakins made his final attempt to get in the field, but fell short with a 5.438 - 246.93, while Chris Demke (near lane), in what appeared to be a new car, ran into trouble early and shut off to a 9.981 - 81.25, and also failed to qualify.

(RIGHT) Next up were a pair of injected cars, with Madison Payne (near lane) sitting in the #7 spot in the field, and not feeling safe about staying in, while Mitch Myers (far lane) was on the outside looking in. Payne launched hard and powered to a low e.t. 5.175 and top speed 280.49 to vault to the top of the field. Meanwhile, in the other lane, Myers picked up a tenth over his second session 5.495, clocking in at 5.397 - 266.64 to fall short of breaking into the eliminations field.

(LEFT) Suffering a major blower backfire when he hit throttle to start his burnout, Mike Austin sat helplessly in the car, unable to defend his #7 qualifying position. In the other lane (not shown), Casey Grisel laid down the run that he and partner Jerry Darien had been looking for all weekend, cranking out a very strong 5.235 - 279.85 to jump from outside the field to the #4 rung on the ladder.

(RIGHT) While Shaunda Blinzler (near lane) was safely in the field with an earlier 5.312, her opponent in the far lane, Braiden Chesleigh was sitting in the #9 position with an earlier best of 5.333. Both racers laid down their best runs of qualifying, with Blinzler's 5.295 - 274.89 moving her up to #6 in the final order. In the far lane, Chesleigh bumped his way into the field with a 5.304 - 259.71 despite the car slowing on the top end. Chesleigh's run was just quick enough to bump Mike Austin down to the first alternate spot.

Coming into the final session in the #4 spot, Taylor Januik (near lane) had slid all the way down to #7 when she staged for her final shot at qualifying. In the far lane, Jon Bradford had only dropped one spot to #3 and was looking to move back up the ladder. Both racers had problems on their runs, with Januik backfiring at the 1000' mark, slowing her to 5.541 at only 206.67 mph. On the other side, Bradford launched very hard, with an .893 60' time, and ran strong to half track, but his speed at that point was down 10 mph from earlier runs, and he shut off before the 900' mark to a 5.646 - 194.32 timeslip. He certainly proved that the electronic fuel injection and torque converter combination pioneered by Bob Button was working well.

The latest update as of February 21, 2025

From the "Picture is worth a Thousand Words" department

Posing proudly beside the rear wing with the #1 TAD lettering, denoting his World Championship Status is Shawn Cowie. He's starting his title defense at this weekend's Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series West Region event at Firebird Motorsports Park (Chandler, AZ). We'll have all the details and photos from the event coming here over the next few days. Stay tuned for them!

The latest update as of February 11, 2025

More than a day late (try two months!) on this one....

I don't go onto Facebook very often (as you can see from the "latest" posting on my personal page. And that's why I completely missed a post from over two months from old friend Larry Pfister. He's going to spend his 50th of being one of drag racing's premier photographers touring around North America, working with Competition Plus at a number of major races, and generally having a great time on the "road" (mostly in the air from the sound of it).

Here's the post he made announcing the Pfister Pfoto 50th Anniversary Tour

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 2, 2024
WHAT: Round 1 of the Pfister Pfoto 50th Anniversary Tour
WHERE: World Series of Pro Mod, Bradenton, FL
WHEN: February 27-March 1, 2025

Veteran motorsport photographer Larry Pfister of Victoria, B.C. is thrilled to announce the first round of his 50th anniversary photo tour has been confirmed. The multi-event tour will kick off February 27, 2025 in Bradenton, Florida at the World Series of Pro Mod. The final event of the three race Drag Illustrated Winter Series at the famed Florida facility. "Ive been working on this for over a year" says the 69 year old Canadian. "That it’s actually gonna happen is more than surreal".

To ensure full photo credentials Pfister will be working with Bobby Bennett's Competition Plus website, which is celebrating it's 25th anniversary. "We've known of each other for a long time. To be able to work with Bobby during his site's big anniversary is about as good as it gets. I hope we can do this for a number of the events I have planned in 2025."

"Larry is one of those guys who worked tirelessly over the years doing what he loved and shooting high-quality photographs of race cars," said Bobby Bennett, a drag racing journalist of almost four decades and founder of CompetitionPlus.com. "But his biggest contribution may have been preserving the history of drag racing. That is so valuable to those of us who work daily in chronicling the history of drag racing, I am very honoured to have him working on our team throughout the DI Winter Series and other key events."

The other major component in the tour was a logo. The job went to long time friend Stu Wotipka of Instinctive Drive Creations."I had a thought of doing something with my 1975 Twig Zeigler flip photo that basically started my career. I wasn't sure it could be done, but I'm very happy with what Stu did with it." Swag featuring the logo will be available soon.

Pfister will still be shooting all the major events at his home track Mission Raceway Park, scheduling tour events around the major Mission races. "I want to cover some rather major events at places I've never been to. I'm not getting any younger, I'm healthy, so the time is right to make 2025 my dream year. And it won’t just be photo coverage. As future dates are confirmed, there are plans for a couple of components that will really complete this dream tour".

It will be very interesting to see how this tour develops for Pfister and we can't wait to see what he's able to capture with his trusty Nikon-Nikkor equipment. More news on this adventure as Pfister reports it.

The latest update as of February 10, 2025

The SHOT heard around the drag racing world

I missed this story until earlier today, but watching the video made me think that Top Alcohol Funny Car leaped into the unknown after the "Pirate Ship" Injected Nitro Funny Car of Bartone, Boggs & Bellemeur simply annihilated the (unofficial) records for the class, by a TON!. When the car crossed the Gainesville Raceway finish line on a test run and the scoreboard lit up with a 5.288 - 283.49 result.... what can you say? other than WTF.

Here is the story as posted on Facebook by Drag Illustrated

Reigning NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car world champion team comprised of the Bartone Bros., tuner Steve Boggs and driver Sean Bellemeur sent shockwaves through the sport with the debut of their new Red Line Oil/Roger Dean/Talon Air 2025 Camaro sporting a new injected nitromethane aluminum Hemi.

While testing during a scheduled bracket race at Gainesville (FL) Raceway on Sunday, February 9, Californian Bellemeur clocked the quickest and fastest run ever for an unblown Funny Car at 5.41 at 241 mph and then returned to unleash an astounding 5.288-second blast at 283.49 mph.

The run exceeded the best injected FC numbers set by Mick Steele at 5.45 at 270 mph but annihilated the best performances by any supercharged Alcohol Funny Car by an amazing six-hundredths of a second (Bellemeur's own NHRA world record of 5.352) and over seven mph, (Annie Whiteley's 276.18). While the car was not required to be NHRA legal during testing, it was, nonetheless, the most jaw-dropping performance yet of 2025.

The internet lit up with lots of naysayers questioning the validity of the pass. Some claiming that they weren't running NHRA specs, hadn't passed tech, etc. All of that is sheer B.S. as the team holds themselves to a very high standard as straight up racers that would never cut corners or do anything that wasn't 100% legal. The obvious question that the critics would have to answer - and can't - is why would they run so much quicker and faster than anyone in the history of the class when they obviously know that NHRA will very quickly be making some major rules changes for the class if that pass is repeated at the "Baby Gators" or Gatornationals next month.

It has been posited that the run was made in an attempt to show NHRA that letting A/Funny Cars run in the TA/FC class is like opening Pandora's Box and that nothing good can come of it. If that actually is the case, it's a very expensive way for the "Killer B's" to get the A/FC option struck from the rulebook.... but it is a remote possibility. There are still only a very small handful of racers running the injected nitro option, and before Bellemeur's jaw-dropping effort, Mick "The Real Deal" Steele" has been the most successful, with some 5.40's, including a best of 5.459 in 2023. That's a long way behind Bellemeur's seemingly "out of the box" test pass at Gainesville.

Stay tuned for more developments and internet debates, from the racers and the NHRA. It could be quite an interesting season for th Top Alcohol Funny Car class.

Here's a link to the Drag Illustrated report on the run.

And another link to the video of the run.

LATE Update: Here's the link to a full story about the car on Crew Chief Daily from Drag Illustrated.

The latest update as of February 9, 2025

SCAG Power Equipment PRO Superstar Shootout Eliminations

TOP FUEL

Eliminations kicked off with the #2 (Doug Kalitta) and #3 (Brittany Force) qualifiers matching up. Kalitta left first by two hundredths but Force drove around him on the top end with a winning 3.736 - 333.08 over Kalitta's close 3.768 - 325.37 effort. The margin at the stripe was just .011 of a second. In the next pair, the bottom qualifiers, #7 (Josh Hart) and #8 (Tony Stewart) faced off, and Hart took the early lead with an .051 to .074 reaction time advantage. He started to pull away until Stewart smoked the tires at half track and it became a victory lap for Hart, stopping the timers at 3.725 - 319.67, while Stewart coasted to a losing 4.974 - 143.40 time.

The third pairing of the round saw #1 (Antron Brown) facing #6 (Shawn Reed). They left almost together, but Reed pulled into a slight lead as they passed half track, before Brown smoked the tires and shut off. Red took the winlight with a 3.785 - 326.24, while Brown trailed at 4.769 - 155.68 in the losing effort. The round closed with the most closely matched racers, #4 (Justin Ashley) facing #5 (Shawn Langdon). Ashley left first - as always - with a great .033 r.t. against a very good .050 for Langdon, but the Kalitta team car faltered early and by 660' it was all Ashley. He didn't set the clocks on fire with a slowing 3.943 - 279.78 showing up on the scoreboards, but it was more than enough for the win over Langdon's 8-second effort.

The semifinals paired up Shawn Reed and Brittany Force, and it was all Reed from start, an .042 reaction time advantage, to finish, with a 3.768 - 320.66 for the holeshot win. Force had better incremental times at all points and posted a very good 3.752 - 327.51, but it wasn't enough to make up for the reaction time deficit. The other second round match featured Josh Hart and Justin Ashley. It was almost dead even off the line (.003 advantage to Ashley), but Hart had better numbers going down the track and stopped the clocks first with a 3.721 - 318.77, over Ashley's close 3.767 - 327.59 effort. Hart's speed dropped off when the engine dropped a cylinder just before the finish line.

With his quicker semifinal timeslip, Josh Hart held lane choice for the final round against Shawn Reed. In the early evening, under the Musco lighting, the header flames were wing high and the numbers glowed brightly on the scoreboards, especially for the winning times of Shawn Reed: 3.699 - 330.39. Putting up a valiant effort in a losing cause was Josh Hart, as his 3.724 - 321.37 wasn't far behind. Both drivers had almost identical r.t.'s with Reed's .065 just a tick quicker than Hart's .067 start.

FUNNY CAR

PRO STOCK

The latest update as of February 7, 2025

SCAG Power Equipment PRO Superstar Shootout Qaulifying

We're finished day four of the Superstar Shootout and we've seen some changes from the original lineup of racers. Top Fuel dropped from eleven to nine competitors, when the Salinas team (Mike & Jasmine) dropped out. Funny Car ended up with ten drivers when Paul Lee was added to the lineup. Pro Stock saw the biggest change when the announced 14 racers became 18 when qualifying commenced. That made for a full 16-car field which justifies the four rounds of eliminations on the schedule.

After four rounds of qualifying, the Top Fuel field ranged from Antron Brown on top with a tremendous 3.644 - 322.11 run, followed by four others in the 3.60's. The bump spot 3.738- 328.30 was held down by sophomore TF racer Tony Stewart.. On the outside, by just half a tenth was Doug Foley with a strong 3.788 - 289.94. We're still trying to figure out what happened to the Salinas team.

In Funny Car, Austin Prock and the "Prock Rocket" team picked up right where they left off in 2024, bombing the timers with a 3.791 - 331.53 to grab the #1 spot in the field. The next eight cars were all the 3.80's, and even the second alternate, Dave Richards laid down a very strong 3.944 - 320.28 to show that they are ready to be a competitive force this season. The bump spot was held down by the "Speed King" Bob Tasca III with an excellent 3.862 - 333.08. First alternate J.R. Todd, in a Scott Kalitta tribute car turned a best number of 3.895 - 333.33 that would qualify strongly in any 16-car field.

Pro Stock would have had the tightest grouping of e.t.'s if it was an 8-car field; less than four hundredths of a second separated the #1 and #8 qualifiers. Even the full 16-car field showed just an eight hundredths spread, from (surprising!) Cory Reed on top at 6.494 - 209.62, all the way down to Chris McGaha on the bubble at a still very good 6.574 - 209.85 clocking. Of note was Deric Kramer with top speed of qualifying at 211.53 mph.

The chip draw for first round pairings saw some weird positioning, with both Top Fuel and Funny Car having just one "standard" pairing of the #4 & #5 qualifiers facing each other. Reasonably separated were one other pairing, where #1 faced #6, but the other two pairs in both classes matched #2 and #3, and #7 versus #8. Pro Stock was all over the board, with #1 against #10, #11 versus #12, and #14 against #15. The biggest gap in the order was #4 facing #16, and the closest was #7 vs. #9. And the pairings for the second round of eliminations, and the semifinal round for Pro Stock would be more chip draws. It's a gimmick to be sure, but we didn't hear or see any obvious complaints about the randomness of it from the racers.

The latest update as of February 4, 2025

It's going to be a busy weekend of racing

It's already started with a total of four time trial sessions today and tomorrow for the Pro Stock, Funny Car, and Top Fuel racers on the invitation list. There's eleven drivers in each of the fuel classes, and 14 racing in Pro Stock. Top Fuel and Funny Car will run standard 8-car elimination fields, with the three non-qualifying racers in each class facing off in a Top Fuel vs Funny Car consolation match race. The quickest winners of the three pairs in the first round of the match race will meet in the consolation final, running just before the Top Fuel and Funny Car finals. The Pro Stock schedule shows four rounds of eliminations, so it appears that there will be bye runs in the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds.

One major difference for the racers will be "chip draws" to determine opponents in all elimination rounds before the finals. Presumably, even the bye runs for Pro Stock will be decided by those draws. That may make it more interesting for the spectators, but will take away some of the incentive to qualify at or near the top of the ladder.

The invitation list on the Shootout website shows only nine racers in each of the fuel classes, but an article about the event on Competition Plus yesterday gave us some updates on the fuel fields. In addition to the nine racers listed on the PRO Superstar Shootout website, the article shows Mike and Jasmine Salinas as part of the Top Fuel field.

On the Funny Car side, there's nothing in the article detailing the two extra drivers, other than to say "none of them are Superstar Shootout 'rookies' other than Jack Beckman". That leaves two of the following four racers to fill the field. Cruz Pedregon, Blake Alexander, Paul Lee, and Alexis DeJoria. We can eliminate Alexander as he has moved on from the Jim Head team and will be driving part-time with Chad Green. That leaves three racers that could possibly fill the two remaining spots, but I'm not going to speculate on who they may be.

The biggest surprise among the non-invited are Steve Torrence and Clay Millican in Top Fuel. There are rumours that the Torrence team (Steve & Billy) will either be a one-car team in 2025, or race a limited schedule, but Millican is a real surprise. He's a social media superstar, has a hard running car, and is very popular. Another oddity, in my estimation is the 14-car Pro Stock elimination field. The promoters should have cut the numbers back to something closer to what was needed for an 8-car field, or added a few more to make it a full 16-car show. Two of the 2024 Top Ten Pro Stock competitors were left out (Matt Hartford and Jerry Tucker), and six racers from outside the Top Ten are on the invite list.

We're not sure if we'll see any results from the "private testing" today and tomorrow, but when the broadcast starts streaming on Thursday morning, we'll hopefully be able to fill in all the blanks in our notebooks. Stay tuned for updates on the event as they happen.

The March Meet is barely a month away, but the dust will be blown off Famoso Dragstrip on Saturday as an open test session will be running. While it's primarily catering to the fuel racers that will be running the March Meet, it is open to all race teams, whether they are competing in March or just wanting to do some testing. The March Meet Event Page is up and accepting entries, selling tickets, and providing lots of information about one of the most iconic drag races in the history of the sport.

At this point it doesn't appear that Northern Thunder will have any photographers on hand for the event, but as with all things around here, that might be subject to change. And as always: stay tuned!

The latest update as of February 3, 2025

A little more IHRA News

The latest news out of the newly rejuvenated International Hot Rod Association is the hiring of Christian Byrd as the Vice President of Strategic Partnerships. With an extensive sports marketing background, which included the mentorship of his late father, Jeff Byrd, who was heavily involved in bringing the R.J. Reynolds (Winston) sponsorships to the IHRA, and later NHRA. Christian's latest motorsports position was as General Manager of zMax Dragway.

At this point we're not sure exactly what his duties will entail, but the media release announcing his hiring closed with the following statement from Mr. Byrd. "We need to make things cost-effective for our families. We need to make it cost-effective for racers. We need the right people in the room. The IHRA is well on its way to doing that."

Other developments at IHRA include the shift of Darlington Dragway (Huntsville, SC) and Wichita Raceway Park (Wichita Falls, TX) from IHRA sanction to the NHRA. While the 1/8-th mile track in Texas is not that significant of a move, the loss of "Legendary" Darlington is a definite loss to the IHRA's roster of tracks. As to how this might affect their plans for a 10-event Nitro Jam season in 2025, that remains to be seen. More news on the "New" IHRA when it happens.

The 2025 Drag Racing Season is underway!

Despite the winter weather covering many parts of North America, there's already one major doorslammer event in the books, and later this week a second, and even bigger, event is on tap at the winter racing capital of Bradenton, FL. Two weeks ago, the Drag Illustrated Winter Series had it's second of three events at Bradenton, with the U.S. Street Nationals. To say it was a very competitive event is a major understatement, as the 32-car Outlaw Pro Mod qualified field was led by Ken Quartuccio's very quick 3.572 pass going into the final qualifying session.

That number held up until one of the last cars down the track, the '69 Camaro of defending champion Mark Micke snatched away the #1 position with a very quick and extremely fast 3.567 - 219.36 pass. At the other end of the field, the bump spot was held down by Matt Dietsch at a very respectable 3.655. Eliminations were unpredictable as some of the higher qualified cars fell early with either too much traction - wheelstands - or severe tire shake. And the field was peppered with some big names, including the 2024 NHRA Top Fuel champion, Antron Brown, perennial NHRA Pro Mod stars Stevie "Fast" Jackson and Lyle Barnett, and No Prep Kings standout Kye Kelley.

After four rounds of intense competition, #2 qualifier Ken Quartuccio faced off against Lyle Barnett and took the $75,000 win with a great 3.586 - 208.62 pass, initiated with an .001 reaction time. Falling just short with an excellent pass of 3.608 - 207.62 was Barnett, who was close, but just not close enough.

The latest update as of January 27, 2025

Anything happen while we were away?

IHRA Ch-ch-ch-anges

It's been a very busy time at IHRA headquarters over the past few months. Starting with the surprising announcement of Kenny Nowling (ex-ADRL head honcho) as the new President of the association on October 23, 2024. Less than two months later, at the PRI (Performance Racing Industry) show, it was announced that Darryl Cuttell had become the new owner of IHRA, after purchasing it from Larry Jeffers. Simultaneously, the announcement of three Nitro Jam races, with Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Mod, and Mountain Motor Pro Stock classes headlining the events in 2025.

Then in the first week of January, at an NFL game in Cincinatti, a big half-time announcement was made that TEN Nitro Jam events would be run this year. Dates and locations to be announced soon. Additional classes were added to the Nitro Jam series at that time, including Pro Stock, Pro Stock Motorcycle, Top Fuel Motorcycle, and Nitro Harley. No word yet on purse sizes but they are promised to be susbstantial, and ZERO entry fees for Pro racers in 2025.

Less than a week later the executive suite at IHRA headquarters saw Mr. Nowling parting ways with IHRA with immediate effect. The announcment reads as follows: "This decision underscores IHRA's commitment to prioritizing safety, competition, and integrity in it's operations". One short sentence that on the surface reads like any corporate change of personnel, but the part of that sentence refering to "safety, competition and integrity" speaks volumes.

Then on January 17th, a new CEO Alex Roach and new President Rich Schaefer (ex-NHRA Division Two Director) were announced in a glowing media release by Jeff Birchfield, director of IHRA communications. The release closed with this sentence: As with anything, this is ever evolving but EXCITING TIMES AHEAD!.

Wait, there's more: as last Thursday (January 24th), ex-NHRA head announcer, Alan Rinehart was hired as Vice-President of Racing Operations. After failing to reach an agreement on a contract extension with NHRA, Rinehart very quickly landed on his feet at IHRA.

All we're waiting for now is the 2025 Nitro Jam schedule. It should be interesting. A quick check of the track roster of IHRA shows a total of 50 facilities, only 15 of which are quarter-mile and only 13 of them on the mainland of the United States. None of them are near a major population center, and only a few have anything near national event capabilities. That means: concrete guardwalls, adequate shutdown areas, large enough pit areas, and grandstands that can accomodate a serious number of spectators.

The latest update as of January 20, 2025

Sunset at Sunset Point, Spirit Bay, BC

Since we got back from Mexico, the skies have been mostly clear, the winds light, and the temperatures bordering on freezing, but when you see a sunset like this.... there's no wondering why we live here

The latest update as of January 2, 2025

Hasta La Vista!

As reported on the home page, we're taking a short winter break to soak up as much sun as we can on the East Coast of Mexico, Akumal Bay to be precise. We'll be back at the drag racing thing later in the month, catching up on and filling in the blanks on as much of the previous years coverage as we can before the 2025 tsunami of stories and photos start filling up in the in-box. Until then, stay safe, stay warm, and enjoy life.

The latest update as of November 19, 2024

BOMB CYCLONE expected to hit Vancouver Island Tuesday afternoon

We've lashed down all the deck furniture, locked all the windows, got out all the candles and lamps, and we're ready for the worst that Mother Nature can throw at us. The wind gusts are forecast to exceed 90 kmh (60 mph) this afternoon and evening, and not abate until well into Wednesday. We're certain that the power is going out within the next few hours so there won't be any updates at Northern Thunder for at least the next day or two. Thankfully, we have a propane fireplace and cooktop so we can cook and stay warm. The next update will be when we resume normal service.

The latest update as of November 18, 2024

SHAWN COWIE - 2024 Top Alcohol Dragster WORLD CHAMPION

It's been a very long time, 18 seasons in all, from his Top Alcohol debut at a Division Six points meet at Mission Raceway Park in May of 2007. After a total of five second place finishes, including four consecutive from 2017 to 2020, three third place finishes, and two fourths, he finally reached the championship podium yesterday at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip by taking a first round win over Mike Coughlin. Along the hard road that he's travelled to this pinnacle, he's overcome a major highway crash that nearly cost him his right foot, almost ended his racing career, and kept him out of the seat for more than two years. Then the loss of his strongest supporter and inspiration, his father Ron Cowie, who lost his battle with cancer in April of 2022. He's overcome all those obstacles, and with the support of his wife Taylor, his children, and one of the hardest working crews in drag racing to reach his ultimate goal.

Here's how he expressed his feelings yesterday on Facebook

Dreams do come true! I couldn't have asked for a better day. Just waiting for it all to sink in. The amount of people that were rooting for us to pull this off/congratulated us/text us after first round is the reason I love this sport so much. Obviously I've been at this for a long time and the ultimate goal is to win a world championship. There are a million people to thank that made this possible along the way: my crew Nick, Thom, Pat, Kelly, and James for never giving up when things got tough this year and believe me there were a few moments! I have the best and most loyal group of guys around! My wife and kids for being so patient with me being away doing this and always supporting me win or lose. My sister for not giving me heck when I'm away from the business and backing me the way Mom and Dad did. Norm Grimes for your infinite wisdom over the years and teaching me so much; you are one of the greatest to do it in this sport and I'm so grateful I got to learn from the best. My sponsors Mundie's Towing, West Can Auto Parts, NGK Spark Plugs and Core Garage Solutions for their continuous support. I'm/our team is going to savour this one! 2024 Top Alcohol Dragster World Champs and it feels damn good! So thankful and grateful!

Coming into the second, and final, round of qualifying, Shawn Cowie was solidly in the upper half of the field in the #3 position, after a very good 5.254 - 277.32 pass on Friday. With cooler air and track temps and a corrected altitude of only 1200 ft, conditions were ripe for some great performances. That was reflected in the cars that ran before him, as he was already bumped down to #5 before launching to a brilliant 5.181 - 279.09 to jump back up to the #2 spot on the ladder.

A few hours later it was time for the main event: the first round of eliminations. Running in the final pair of the round, Shawn knew that his closest pursuer, Jackie Fricke had already advanced to the quarterfinal round, so he had to win this round to be certain of winning the championship. Facing veteran Mike Coughlin in a McPhillips Racing car, Cowie faced a tough challenge, but he was more than up to the task, pounding out his quickest run of the event, an awesome 5.180 - 278.58 to easily cover Coughlin's centerline teasing, early shutoff effort.

While the scoreboard told the tale, the crew got busy with the serious business of celebrating Shawn Cowie's historic World Championship winning run. After so many Top Ten appearances in the standings, thirteen in all, the team finally climbed to the top rung on the success ladder.

Here's a few more shots (borrowed by Shawn Cowie's Facebook page) of (left to right) surrounded by cameras after getting out of the car on the top end following his winning pass over Mike Coughlin in the opening round of eliminations, then appearing on the championship podium with his wife and crew, and sitting by itself, the 2024 World Champion Top Alcohol Dragster trophy, the big gold Wally.

One final shot of Shawn staging up as the sun sets over In-N-Out Burger Pomona dragstrip.

The latest update as of November 17, 2024

11:15 AM UPDATE

Two pairs of Top Fuel cars have gone down the track, and in the second pair, Jasmine Salinas dynamited the blower at the conclusion of her winning run (on a holeshot) against Shawn Reed. That necessitated a quick cleanup.... BUT.... while that was underway, a small plane missed the runway at the adjacent municipal airport and crashed in an area at the end of the shutdown area of the track. So far, there's no further word(s) from the announcers on the subject, but everything is hold for now.

Waiting patiently at the head of the staging lanes is the third pair of the opening round of eliminations, Justin Ashley and Antron Brown. To say that it's a major matchup would be a gross understatement. It's literally all or nothing for Brown, as a loss would eliminate him from championship contention, and seriously hurt Shawn Langdon's chances. Below him in the standings, Doug Kalitta and Steve Torrence would be in serious danger of falling out of the chase, while Brittany Force would be in even deeper trouble.

More news as soon as the incident at the end of the track is dealt with and racing resumes. The time now is 11:24 am PST.

Here's the photos from yesterday's final qualifying sessions for Top Fuel and Funny Car. We'll post more of yesterday's action shots when we get them. Probably tomorrow.

TOP FUEL - Qualifying Session #3 (FINAL)

After losing one and a half sessions to rain on Friday, the majority of the dragster teams had just two chances to make what was shaping up to be a tough field. After the early session on Saturday, the bump spot was a rather weak 4.121, but the top 15 cars were in at 3.818 or better. Sitting on the outside, and facing their last chance to make the field were championship contenders Shawn Langdon and Clay Millican.

(LEFT) The session opened with #18 on the qualifying list, Clay Millican, facing a do or die scenario. Millican came through with a great 3.700 - 331.36 to jump all the way up to #6 on the ladder. Running alongside him was Shawn Langdon (not shown) who really turned up the wick with a new low e.t. of the event at 3.653 - 331.45 to vault all the way to the #1 spot. In the process, they bumped out Ron August and Scott Palmer, and put Krista Baldwin on the bubble with her 3.818 best.

(RIGHT) Facing a tough task to get back into the field, Scott Palmer put down a good effort, but came up short with a 3.858 - 301.47 coming up on the scoreboard. His earlier best of 3.818 was equalled Baldwin's e.t. but was 20 mph slower, leaving him one spot out of the field. The other non-qualifier, Ron August, didn't show for the final qualifying session and finished in the #18 spot.

(LEFT) With the no-show by Ron August and Scott Palmer's failure to better her e.t., Krista Baldwin wasn't feeling any pressure to improve, but she put down a solid, and slightly better 3.801 - 302.28 to close out the ladder. She was on pace to run in the 3.70's but started to move out of the groove and was forced to shut off early.

(RIGHT) Making quite a splash in his Top Fuel debut, Gary Pritchett, in a Scrappers Racing team car, was already solidly qualified with a 3.750, and nearly matched that number with a 3.769 - 319.67 pass. Running a tribute wrap to his late Godmother, Carol 'Bunny' Burkett, Pritchett was having a dream weekend.

(LEFT) Continuing her rookie season in North America, Finland's Ida Zetterstrom put down another consistent pass, this time ringing up a 3.755 - 325.37, just a few ticks slower than her #14 qualifying 3.738 in the first session on Friday.

(RIGHT) Looking to finish up his "rookie" season in style, Tony Stewart made a big move up the ladder, from #13 to the top half of the field and the #6 spot. He blasted out a 3.694 - 333.91 to move up and show the potential of the "Direct Connection" dragster.

(LEFT) Needing a good qualifying spot to give himself a chance to catch the points leader (Justin Ashley), Antron Brown desperately wanted to move up from the #12 position on the ladder. He launched hard, but ran into trouble right away and shut off to an 8-second clocking, putting his goal of winning the championship further out of reach.

(RIGHT) Already well qualified in the #6 spot with a strong 3.690, Brittany Force pushed everyone back a notch with a new low e.t. and top speed of the event, at 3.643 - 336.65 to show that the David Grubnic-tuned "Monster" car was ready to rock.

Closing out qualifying with a bang was outgoing world champion Doug Kalitta, as he pounded out a great 3.650 - 334.98 to move up three spots to #3 on the ladder. With the entire top half of the field in the 3.60's, eliminations were certain to be very competitive, and aside from Baldwin's 3.801 bump spot, the rest of the field was closely bunched together with barely a tenth of a second separating them.

FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #3 (FINAL)

With 19 cars in the pits, and a bump spot of just 5.413, held down by Jason Rupert, the final session promised some bumping and more than a few tense moments. Even though there were 13 cars already in the 3-second zone, there was a good chance for an all 3-second field at the end of the session. On the other end of the spectrum, the top three qualifiers were all holding 3.82 timeslips, lead by three time world champion Ron Capps.

(LEFT) First out of the staging lanes, and needing a good run to get into Sunday's eliminations, pushed the Jim Dunn-owned and tuned "MoonEyes" Dodge to a solid 4.076 - 305.29 to grab the #15 rung on the ladder.

(RIGHT) While Dave Richards (near lane) was out in front at this point, he was already shut off and coasting to a 13-second e.t., while Alex Miladinovich, in the far lane, who was also off the throttle, stopped the timers with a 7-second timeslip. Needless to say, neither driver qualified, with Richards ending up in the #19 spot, while the "Hot 4 Teacher" entry claimed the 18th spot on the list.

(LEFT) When he staged for his final qualifying pass, Jeff Diehl was on the bump spot with a previous best of 4.544, but he upped that considerably, with a great 3.980 - 286.32 flashing up on the scoreboard. If he hadn't shut off early, the e.t. could have been a few hundredths quicker.

(RIGHT) Running on a solo as scheduled running mate Steven Densham remained in the pits, Terry Haddock wanted to join the 3-second "club" but just missed the mark. His earlier 4.041 had him in the #15 spot, and while he didn't better that number, he laid down a consistent 4.058 - 310.13 to show that he was ready for eliminations.

(LEFT) Last year's world champion, Matt Hagan wanted to finish the season on a high note, and moved in that direction, jumping up the ladder from #9 to #4 with his best pass of the weekend (so far) 3.838 - 331.94 to grab lane choice for the first round tomorrow.

(RIGHT) Hoping to turn things around after four consecutive first round exits, Alexis DeJoria hadn't made it to the finish line under power in the first two sessions, but got closer in the final go-round, stopping the clocks with an improved 3.890 - 308.43 that moved her up one notch from #12 to #11 in the final qualifying order.

(LEFT) With a new look to the car, and new sponsorship, Paul Lee wanted to followup his runnerup finish at the previous race (Las Vegas) with another strong showing to close out the season. He was in the #7 spot in the field with a best of 3.875, but slipped just a little here with a still very good 3.907 - 327.19 pass.

(RIGHT) After dominating the season with eight wins in 11 final round appearances, Austin Prock wanted to regain the #1 qualifying session from Ron Capps, and he did it with the quickest e.t. of his short Funny Car career. The result was a 3.804 - 334.57 to take the top spot for the 15th time (in 20 races)this season, a record for the class.

(LEFT) Already in the top half of the field with a best of 3.870 - 336.40, the Jim Head-owned and tuned car, driven by left strong with clearly visible header flames, but the tuneup was just a little too stout, leading to smoking tires, and Blake had to give up early and coast to an 8-second clocking.

(RIGHT) Running in the final pairing of qualifying, Jack Beckman wanted to overtake his John Force Racing teammate and grab the top spot in the field. It wasn't to be though as he started smoking the tires shortly after this photo was taken, and he remained in the #3 spot with a very good 3.828 to his credit from the first session.

POSTSCRIPT - A random technical inspection of Buddy Hull's car following the qualifying session revealed an infraction concerning the angle of the exhaust headers. That led to a disqualifaction of the run, and reinstated Jason Rupert as the #16 qualifier.

CompetitionPlus.com wrote a short article about the situation, with quotes from Mr. Hull about the NHRA's tech department procedures and equipment. You can read it at the bottom of the About the Buddy Hull Q4 Disqualification article.

PS: It was actually the Q3 session as there wasn't a fourth session due to Friday's rain.

The latest update as of November 16, 2024

10:00 AM UPDATE: After the NHRA.com Saturday preview indicated that Top Alcohol eliminations would begin at 10:15 this morning, effectively closing the dragster field after just one qualifying session, there was a schedule change made to give the non-qualifiers a reprieve. There will be a second session for the dragsters, starting at 10:00 am (but the racing is running a little behind schedule already). Following the dragster session, the Top Alcohol Funny Cars will go into their first round of eliminations.

The dragsters will be run their first round of eliminations at 12:30, both alcohol categories will run their second rounds after professional qualifying finishes. That should work out to an approximately 4:00 pm start for that second round. So far, there is no mention of when - or if - the Las Vegas final round for the TAFCs or the semifinal and final rounds for the TADS from the Winternationals will be completed. Stay tuned for updates on both those situations. But bear in mind that none of those matchups will have a material effect on the championship points standings.

Here's the clouds to the north of the track. They're not too foreboding at this point but they gradually intensified until the skies let loose as the Top Alcohol Dragsters were waiting to begin their second qualiyfing session.

FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #1

Our photographer BIG Bob Snyder, tried a few different locations for this session, quite often getting both cars in the frame, sometime fully, and sometimes partially. It was a different look to the usual presentation, and showed a different perspective of the cars.

(LEFT) After a three hour delay in on-track action, local racer Alex Miladinovich in his self-sponsored "Hot 4 Teacher" entry hit the track for the first time since the spring race at Las Vegas. He went into immediate tire shake and shut off to a 9-second clocking.

(RIGHT) Wearing a very different wrap from two weeks ago at Las Vegas, So-Cal veteran Jason Rupert fell to the same malady that afflicted Miladinovich: tire shake, and lots of it. The result: an 8-second timeslip.

(LEFT) A pair of relatively "low-buck" racers tried out the track next, with Terry Haddock, in the near lane, making a good opening pass of 4.041 - 305.84 to stake his claim for a spot in the field. In the far lane, Jeff Diehl ran strong to half track, but dropping cylinders forced him to shut off to a 4.934 - 160.58 clocking.

(RIGHT) With the familiar "MoonEyes" wrap on the car, Buddy Hull ran into immediate tire shake and was forced to give up the run early, finally stopping the timers with an 8.320 - 78.61 result.

(LEFT) Starting to pull away from Dave Richards in the far lane, Alexis DeJoria (near lane), ran strong to near the finish line before shutting off early to a 3.948 at only 292.65 mph. Richards lost traction on the launch and coasted to a 7-second pass.

(RIGHT) Running strong to the 900' mark before getting out of the groove, Chad Green was still able to dip into the 3's with a strong 3.953 - 279.85 to grab a temporary hold on the #4 spot in the field. Almost out of the frame in the far lane, Cruz Pedregon made a strong statement with a #2 qualifying 3.875 - 324.59 pass.

(LEFT) This was a close race for the first few hundred feet before Daniel Wilkerson (near lane) pulled away from J.R. Todd in the far lane after he lost traction. Wilkerson shut off a little early but still rang up a solid 3.903 - 308.92 to grab a spot in the top half of the field.

(RIGHT) Another one-sided pairing saw , in the near lane, shake the tires and shut off, while Blake Alexander kept it hooked up and pounded out a great 3.870 at a booming speed of 336.40 mph.

(LEFT) Running side by side at this point, the gap between Ron Capps (near lane), and Matt Hagan, in the far lane, opened considerably when Capps ran into tire shake and lifted. Hagan ran strong to the finish line, with a very good 3.895 - 328.38 showing on the scoreboard.

(RIGHT) The session ended with the two John Force Racing cars meeting, with Austin Prock (near lane) clinching the 2024 Funny Car World Championship by making this qualifying attempt. Running alongside him in the far lane, Jack Beckman outran the young gun, stopping the clocks with a top qualifying 3.828 - 334.82. Only a hundredth behind, Prock slotted into the #2 spot on the ladder with a very strong 3.842 - 331.94 pass.

As the session ended, the dark clouds became even darker and more ominous.

TOP FUEL - Qualifying Session #1

(LEFT) Making quite an impression in his NHRA Top Fuel debut, Gary Pritchett caught everyone's attention with a very strong .750 - 329.91 in his first competition pass. Running alongside him, and barely visible in the near lane, Scott Palmer ran a very respectable 3.818 - 294.88 to open his weekend. That was his quickest pass so far this season as he kept working towards a competitive tuneup.

(RIGHT) Back in her own car after Spencer Massey drove it at Las Vegas, Krista Baldwin was on a very good pass until she had to lift just past the 700' mark, slowing her to a 3.916 - 249.81. The incrementals showed she was on her way to a low 3.80 - or better - before she had to back out of the throttle.

(LEFT) Two young women paired up next, with Jasmine Salinas (near lane) facing Ida Zetterstrom in the far lane. Salinas ran into trouble early and shut off to a 6.311, while Zetterstrom cranked out a career best of 3.738 - 323.89 that put her in the top spot to that point in the session.

(RIGHT) Zetterstrom's grip on the top spot didn't last long as Billy Torrence (near lane) ran a very strong 3.724 - 329.34 to take over the #1 apor, while Josh Hart, in the far lane, laid down a decent 3.806 - 322.19 to stake a spot in the field.

The final pair down the track before the rains came again - and stopped the day's proceedings - featured Shawn Reed in the near lane, and Tony Stewart in the far lane. Reed continued his late season improvements, this time turning the quickest time of the day at 3.712 - 320.36. The tuneup that Rob Wendland has been working on all season is really showing some serious performance gains. While Reed was running strong, Stewart lost traction and shut down to a 6.832 - 95.21 result.

The latest update as of November 15, 2024

We just received photos from Thursday's qualifying. There's not enough time to get them all posted this morning, but we'll be working on it later in the day.

TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER - Qualifying Session #1

(LEFT) After making his first appearance at a national event in nearly a decade at the Las Vegas event, Aaron Olivarez, driving a McPhillips Racing car, started qualifying with a very strong 5.240 - 264.86 here. Even though the speed was a little down, it was an impressive shot for the rest of the field to take notice of.

(RIGHT) This is a classic shot: flames shooting out of the headers, rear tires starting to smoke, and the front wheels in the air. You'd think it was a disaster in the making, but Trevor Larkin held it together and put up a decent 5.515 - 260.04 to start his weekend.

(LEFT) Launching hard, with the front wheels dangling in the air, Kim Parker ran strongly until the wheels kept going skywards, forcing her to lift to bring the front end down. That move certainly hurt her e.t. and the scoreboards reflected that as a 5.737 - 259.91 displaying.

(RIGHT) Things got back to normal with another Northwest racer, Garrett Bateman, being tuned by Rick Henkelman, posting a solid 5.330 - 271.68, despite losing the "mud flaps" (body panels placed in front of the rear tires) as he neared the finish line.

(LEFT) Next up was Texan Kirk Wolf, driving the Minnesota-based A/Fuel Dragster of Dean Dubbin. Despite a slightly sluggish launch, Wolf picked up the pace considerably going down track, stopping the timers with a 5.316 - 272.94, placing him #4 on the qualifying lis. However, with nearly a dozen racers waiting in the lanes, it was almost certain to drop at least a spot or three.

(RIGHT) Former world champion Joey Severance, with assistance from J&A Services started strongly with the quickest 60' time of the session, at .911, but started shaking the tires and headed towards the centerline, forcing him to shut off to a 7.898 - 104.83 timeslip.

(LEFT) Joining the 5.30 crowd next was Joe C. Maynard in the "Leatherwood Distilleries" backed A/FD. He made a solid opening lap at 5.339 - 271.30, but it paled in comparison to Madison Payne's (not shown) pass of 5.161 - 277.37 that shot her to the very top of the field with a career quickest elapsed time.

(RIGHT) Running on a single when scheduled opponent Mike Coughlin was unable to appear, Angelle Sampey nearly bogged down low, then ran hard to the 1000' mark before dropping a cylinder and stopping the clocks with a 5.317 - 257.19 to grab a very tentative hold on the #6 spot in the order.

(LEFT) Defending world champion Julie Nataas, in the Randy Meyer Racing entry wanted to finish her season on a strong note, and started well with a 5.290 - 272.72 to place herself in the #4 spot with only one pair of cars remaining to run the session.

(RIGHT) The points leader, Canada's Shawn Cowie, was certainly amped up with the possibility of becoming the 2024 Top Alcohol Dragster champion. To do so, all he needed to do was qualify and win his first round of eliminations. It didn't take long to accomplish the first step when numbers of 5.254 - 277.32 flashed up on the scoreboard.

TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #1

(LEFT) Paying homage to his father "Jam-Air" John Martin, second generation flopper pilot Will Martin, pedalled his way to a decent 5.701 - 263.00 to open his weekend. With only 11 cars entered, he was solidly qualified but needed to quicken-up the car in the next qualifying session.

(RIGHT) Making his seventh appearance of the season in the late Rick Jackson's car, former (2017) world champion Shane Westerfield didn't waste any time getting down the track. He stopped the timers with a good 5.500 - 266.21 to show the field that they were coming to race.

(LEFT) Making her first trip out to the west coast was Iowa's Christine Foster, who's spent most of the season in the TA/FC Top Ten standings. She didn't get off to a good start with her first pass going up in smoke instantly as she shut off to a 12-second clocking.

(RIGHT) All the way from Sweden, the long distance warriors, the Leanders brothers, with Ulf Leander driving, prepared to make what is planned to be their last appearance in Top Alcohol Funny Car. They got off to a decent start with a second best to this point 5.544 - 259.96 pass. In case you're wondering why their car is for sale, it's because they're planning to move up to Nitro Funny Car near the end of the 2025 season.

(LEFT) The second to last pair of the round provided the first side-by-side 5.40 passes of the event. Oregon's Brian Hough got the ball rolling with a strong 5.466 - 268.44 to jump into the top spot on the ladder, while in the other lane, Annie Whiteley (not shown) was almost as quick with a 5.473 - 266.58 effort.

(RIGHT) Closing out the session was the 2024 world champion in the "Killer B's" car, Sean Bellemeur, and he showed why they've been the dominant players in the class on their "Retribution" tour. He nudged Hough back one notch with a top qualifying 5.455 - 266.06 to show that they intended to finish the year with a "perfect" season of seven national event wins and three regional victories.

The latest update as of November 14, 2024

59th annual In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals - In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip - Pomona, CA

The first qualifying session for Top Alcohol Dragster and Funny Car is in the books. Only 19 of the 21 dragsters that attempted to make a pass got down the track, as two were shut off after their burnouts. There were some tire smokers (Nick Spiegel, Casey Grisel, and Hunter Green), a centerline teasing pass (Joey Severance), and a big wheelstand (Kim Parker). But there were some quick runs, one of which was a career best, as Madison Payne blasted out a 5.161 - 277.37 to put an exclamation mark on the "Muscle Milk" team's late season surge.

Other notable passes in the first session was the first car down the track, Aaron Oliveraz in a McPhillips car at 5.240, to set the early pole position, then Mitch Myers with his best pass of the season at 5.288 - 270.27, and the consistently quick blown alky car of Jon Bradford at 5.278 - 273.00. Near the end of the session, Julie Nataas joined the 5.20 club with a solid 5.290 - 273.00, that broke up the batch of 5.30-ish paases; five in all. The round closed with the presumptive world champion, Shawn Cowie, laying down a "safe" 5.254 - 277.32 to slot into the #3 spot on the ladder. It should be noted that the only car to run faster than Cowie, and only by .05 of a mph, was Payne's top qualifying effort in her A/Fuel car.

Only 11 of the 13 Funny Cars entered appeared for their first session, and like the dragsters, it was a mix of hits and misses. Until the last two pairs of the session ran, low e.t. was held by Shane Westerfield at 5.500, while Ulf Leanders sat in the #2 spot at 5.544. Both were very good, but hardly earthshaking efforts. Then Annie Whiteley at 5.473, and Brian Hough with an even better 5.466 set the high marks for the round. Until Sean Bellemeur trumped them both with a #1 qualifying 5.455, while his running mate, Maddi Gordon, fell to early tire shake and coasted to a 6-second clocking.

With two more sessions on tap tomorrow, and the final rounds of the Winternationals and Las Vegas second race on the line as part of the second and third qualifying sessions, Friday will be a very interesting day with some serious drama as qualifying wraps up. We'll be back tomorrow with as many updates as we have time for, so stay tuned.

The latest update as of November 13, 2024

Odds and Ends

There's an interesting story on NHRA.com about the debut of Melanie Johnson, daughter of famed crew chief Alan Johnson, in the Top Alcohol Dragster class. Working with McPhillips team, she made a big impression on the other racers at last weekend's West Regional event at Las Vegas. You can read the story here.

2025 NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series schedule released

This one was posted last week and it slipped our notice for a few days before we scrolled through the event list. Among the 21 regional races, there's one at our "home" track, Mission Raceway Park, for the first time since 2019. It's already on our calendar for June 14-15, 2025 and it will mark the first time that we've been to Mission since 2017. With the 2024 World Champion in Top Alcohol Dragster, Shawn Cowie, sure to be in attendance, it will be a special event to be sure. We're hoping that the competitor numbers in Top Alcohol are much higher than they were for the 2019 event, when only four dragsters and just two funny cars made the trek north to Mission.

The latest update as of November 12, 2024

UPDATED Top Alcohol Top Ten standings

There weren't a lot of changes in the points standings at the conclusion of the final Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series regional event of the season at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday. The most significant developments occurred in the non-entry of a number of racers in the regional event or this week's In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals.

On the dragster side, the number of racers chasing points leader Shawn Cowie dwindled from two to one, as Angelle Sampey needed to win both the Las Vegas regional and the Pomona finals to have any chance of overtaking Cowie. While she is entered in the finals, she wasn't at the Las Vegas regional, and that extinguished her chances for the 2024 TAD title. The lone remaining contender is Jackie Fricke, and she has to win at Pomona, AND have Cowie not get past the first round, or fail to qualify.

If either of those events happen, then Fricke would be the champion by a margin of ONE point. Based on Cowie's performance record at Pomona over the years, it's not very likely - actually highly unlikely - to happen.

There was one change at the bottom of the top ten, with Madison Payne leapfrogging over former #10 Joey Severance, with her win at the Las Vegas regional. It's been a challenging season for the Duane Shields-owned team, with just one national event final round appearance, and only once into the winner's circle at a regional event, that coming on Sunday at Las Vegas.

There is a chance that Severance could re-take the tenth spot with a good weekend at Pomona. He will be running in the postponed Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals semifinals during qualifying for the finals, then compete in the In-N-Out Burger NHRA finals. Altogether he could gain 86 points and take the #10 spot but it will take the best weekend the Severance team has had in the past few years to accomplish that task. And Payne would have to lose before the final round in eliminations.

As we all know and have known for two months, the "Killer B's" team of Bartone, Boggs & Bellemeur have achieved their goal of re-taking the world championship, and they've done it in style. All that remains is to win the postponed final round from the Ford Performance NHRA Nationals to reach the "perfect" season of 850 points. That is seven national and three regional wins, and they are just one national win (Vegas) short of that goal. All that is standing between them and perfection is Maddi Gordon, their opponent in the Vegas final round which will be run during qualifying at Pomona.

Young Ms. Gordon has wrapped up second place in the standings with an outstanding rookie season, notching three regional wins, one national win, and one runnerup, and another final round appearance in the weather delayed Vegas nationals this coming weekend. There were two moves in the top ten standings, as Ulf Leanders jumped from #12 all the way to #8, moving two racers down a notch, and pushing Ray Martin out of the Top Ten, despite his runnerup finish at Las Vegas.

Martin had claimed all the regional events possible and couldn't gain any more points. Driving the Miner Brothers car, Martin has been a steady performer all season and will almost certainly jump back into the top ten, possibly to as high as #8, as he only trails Leanders by 10 points going into the NHRA Finals. Further up in the standings, the only likely change is for Brian Hough, currently sitting fourth, to overtake Bob McCosh Jr. for the #3 spot by qualifying at Pomona. With only 13 cars entered, that appears to be a mere formality.

The latest update as of November 10, 2024

Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series - West Regional - Las Vegas, NV

It's starting to seem that this event will never end for the Top Alcohol racers, as we're well into day four and we've just finished Top Alcohol eliminations. In the dragsters, it was Madison Payne taking her first regional event win of the season, that solidified her hold on the #10 spot in the standings. She took out veteran Joey Severance in the final when Severance was forced to pedal, and couldn't get back on the loud pedal quickly enough to stay in the hunt. He's in the #11 spot in the standings, and has an outside chance to get into the Top Ten with a good performance at Pomona. He's got a bonus event to race in there, as he's in the final four from the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals, which will be contested during qualifying for the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals.

On the funny car side, it was another case of "same old, same old" as the Killer B's "Retribution Tour" continued their winning ways. Driver Sean Bellemeur took the event win in a close race against the Miner Brothers car with Alaskan Ray Martin driving. He's currently occupying the #11 spot in the points standings, but will almost certainly vault into the Top Ten at Pomona. That's partly based on the assumption that a number of racers who haven't yet entered the Pomona event get their entries in at the last minute. Since none of them are in contention for a top placing, that seems very unlikely.

One racer that made a big jump in the standings at the Las Vegas regional was Ulf Leanders who jumped from #11 to #8 with his semifinal finish. The Leanders brothers will be racing at Pomona and could pick up one more spot with a semifinal finish. And if Ray Martin has a good outing at the final event of the season, he could battle Leanders for the #7 or #8 position in the final standings.

We'll wait until the entry deadline passes on Tuesday, presuming that Monday which is Veterans Day, is not a business day and the deadline is usually on the first business day of the week of an event.

Next up at Northern Thunder is more work on our Las Vegas coverage with a large batch of photos from Friday and Saturday's action, plus heaps of captions to go with them.

The latest update as of November 9, 2024

Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series - West Regional - Las Vegas, NV

After two days of time trials and qualifying, we're down to the final qualifying session, later this morning, for the Top Alcohol cars at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. There's 15 Dragsters and nine Funny Cars competing, and in the TAD field, the bump spot is already down to a 5.327, while the TAFCs have the top seven qualifiers in at 5.564 or better. Leading the way for the dragsters is a resurgent Chris Demke, with a 5.255 - 275.45, while Sean Bellemeur served notice on the funny car field with a booming 5.428 - 266.79 blast. An interesting sidenote is that Shawn Cowie ran quicker and faster (5.253 - 275.56) in a time trial run on Thursday, but has not made a pass since.

One other note is that Angelle Sampey is not in attendance at the event, and has eliminated herself from championship contention for the TAD title in 2024. Now the only obstacle to Cowie taking the crown is Jackie Fricke. She's running this weekend at Las Vegas, and is not currently qualified, but can't gain any points anyway as she used up her allotment of regional events months ago. She will be at Pomona, but will have to win the event AND have Cowie not get past the first round to overtake him by.... wait for it.... ONE point for the championship.

We'll have more news, and hopefully final results from the Vegas regional tomorrow. Then it's on to Pomona where we'll have our west coast correspondent and photographer, Bob Snyder on hand to take in all the action from the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals. Keep coming back here to see all the photos and reports over the next two weeks.

10:00 AM UPDATE: Just saw the Saturday schedule for the West Regional event and it shows the final qualifying session for Top Alcohol at 12:00 noon, first round of eliminations at 2:30 PM, second round of eliminations at 5:00 PM, and final round(s)..... must be tomorrow. It's making for a long weekend for the alky racers, then the majority of them have to load up and head west for Pomona.

The latest update as of November 8, 2024

PRO Points Standings

The latest update as of November 7, 2024

TOP ALCOHOL Top Ten Points Standings

We've got just enough time this morning to post the updated Top Alcohol points, starting with the Funny Cars. Tomorrow we'll put up the PRO points standings where all the classes are still at least mathematically up for grabs. Please note that points with a YELLOW background indicate that more points could be earned for not completed events. RED numbers indicate that a racer cannot catch the points leader. XXX indicate that no further races are possible to attend.

This championship has already been decided when Sean Bellemeur won the Carolina Nationals in September. Sitting in second place, Maddi Gordon, could theoretically be overtaken by #4 Brian Hough, but that remains a remote possibility.

This battle is going all in Shawn Cowie's favour with just two racers remaining with an extremely slim chance of overtaking him for the 2024 world championship. Jackie Fricke would have to win the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals next week at Pomona, AND have Cowie go out in the first round, or not qualify at that event. Even more insurmountable odds face Angelle Sampey, as she would have to not only win this week's West Regional event at Las Vegas, but also take the finals at Pomona. And have Cowie fail to qualify or lose in the first round at Pomona.

The latest update as of November 5, 2024

24th annual Ford Performance NHRA Nationals - The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway - Las Vegas, NV

Sunday's racing was halted, then postponed, due to the massive gear lube slick in the left lane when Doug Kalitta's rearend broke in the semifinal round. The Safety Safari completed their cleanup and track prep for Monday's Funny Car, Pro Stock, and Pro Stock Motorcycle semifinals, and finals. Before the pros got to strut their stuff, the supporting cast ran their final rounds, starting with Pro Modified and the Mountain Motor Pro Stock races.

(LEFT) After wrapping up the 2024 Congruity Pro Modified World Championship with a win over former champion Kris Thorne in the semifinal round on Sunday, Jordan Lazic (far lane) made his quickest and fastest pass of the event in the final against Mike Janis (near lane). The win was his second national event win, after winning in his NHRA debut at St. Louis last year. Lazic ran 5.729 - 251.53 for the win, and set top speed of the event, while Janis redlighted by -.019 and shut down to a 9-second time.

(RIGHT) Taking the win in Mountain Motor Pro Stock category was Johnny Pluchino in his 2013 Mustang (near lane) over the 2022 Camaro of Randi Lyn Butner in the far lane. Pluchino set low e.t. of the meet in the final, with a 6.300 - 221.56 easily handling a slightly off-pace 6.437 - 220.15 of Butner. She had been in the low 6.30's up until the final, but had a little slip when it mattered the most.

(LEFT) The picture tells the story very graphically, as defending world champion Julie Nataas (near lane) saw her repeat championship aspirations literally go up in smoke in the final round against Shawn Cowie in the far lane. After setting low e.t. of the meet (5.211) in the semifinal, she lost traction instantly and could only watch Cowie fly away to the win while she limped to a 19-second 34-mph loss. Cowie ran into trouble down track, losing the engine at the 1000' mark and coasting across the finish line at 5.600 - 244.60. The event win virtually gave Cowie the world championship that he's been trying to capture for 17 years.

(RIGHT) Another picture that shows how Shane Westerfield (near lane), driving the Bucky Austin & Ed O'Brien-owned "Bardahl" car lost in the final round of the Legends of Nitro Funny Car category. Despite setting low e.t. and top speed of the meet in qualifying, and mowing down two opponents to reach the final, Shane lost traction and could only muster an 11-second clocking. Taking full advantage of Westerfield's plight was Tim Boychuk in his "Happy Hour" '69 Camaro as he pounded out a consistent 4.851 - 241.71 for the win on the 1000 ft track.

(LEFT Heavy favourite and almost certain to be the new world champion, Austin Prock faced the back-in-black Jim Head entry, driven by Blake Alexander. Prock left first by only a hundredth, but quickly stretched the lead when Alexander lost traction before the 60 ft clocks. From there to the finish line it was another consistent mid 3.80 pass for Prock, stopping the timers at 3.859 - 328.54 and advancing to his 11th final round of the season.

(RIGHT) The other semifinal pitted Jack Beckman, driving for John Force, in the near lane, against hard charging Paul Lee in the far lane. The "smart" money had Beckman favoured to take the win and face teammate Prock in the final, but Lee, with the tuning of Jonnie Lindberg, cranked out a career best 3.834 - 330.23 to take the holeshot win over Beckman's excellent 3.827 - 323.04 pass. Lee left first by a hundredth of a second and took the winlight by two thousandths. Incredibly close racing, and with the win Paul Lee took lane choice into the final against Prock.

(LEFT) The first final round, of the four-wheeled variety, featured the Pro Stock cars, with Greg Anderson in the near lane, and Aaron Stanfield on the far side. Anderson came into the final with lane choice - by a ton - but Stanfield took an early lead with a two hundredths quicker reaction time. His quick launch was just enough to hold off Anderson's quicker 6.591 - 206.39 effort, as Stanfield's 6.606 - 206.13 gave him the winlight by barely five thousandths of a second. The margin at the line was less than two feet in a super close race.

(RIGHT) In the Funny Car final, the #1 qualifier, Austin Prock, met up with #3 Paul Lee. Oddly enough, based on Prock's completely dominating season, Lee came into the match with lane choice, with a 3.834 in the semifinal bettering Prock's 3.859 pass. Prock took an immediate lead with a small holeshot, then extended the margin throughout the run, stopping the clocks with a very good 3.830 e.t. (There was no speed recorded on the run). Lee dropped a cylinder early in the run and slowed on the top end to a 3.982 - 297.94 as his hopes for a victory evaporated.

(LEFT) The event finished with the top qualifying Brittany Force facing the 2023 world champion Doug Kalitta. Force came into this event without a national event win for two full years, while Kalitta was hoping to close the gap to the points leaders going into the final event at Pomona. Force held lane choice with her 3.666 in the semifinal being low e.t. of eliminations, while Kalitta didn't receive an e.t. when teammate Shawn Langdon took out the finish line timing blocks.

(RIGHT) Kalitta left first by an .064 to .076 margin, but didn't make it to the 60' timers before the tires broke loose, slowing him to a 6.147 e.t., while Force ran away from him with a solid 3.703 - 332.59 for the well-deserved and long overdue victory.

In case you're wondering - as we were too - where the Top Alcohol Funny Cars were, the answer came shortly after the final rounds were completed. The racers, Sean Bellemeur and Maddi Gordon, decided to run their final round during qualifying at the season-ending In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals at Pomona.

The latest update as of November 4, 2024

24th annual Ford Performance NHRA Nationals - The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway - Las Vegas, NV

TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR Eliminations - Round TWO

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TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER Eliminations - Round TWO

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TOP FUEL Eliminations - Round ONE

After the pre-race ceremonies, which included the inevitable track walk, professional driver introductions, the Raceers for Christ invocation and the National Anthem, it was time for the traditional "Let's Get Ready To Burn Some NITRO" invitation from Joe "WFO" Castello. And things started to happen QUICKLY!

(LEFT) The first pair out of the lanes are almost always the #8 and #9 qualifiers, and this battle saw the "out of nowhere" Travis Shumake (far lane) taking on Shawn Reed in the near lane. Shumake dropped a bomb on the field in qualifying, laying down career best numbers - by a TON - at 3.724 - 323.12, while Reed continued on his upward trajectory as crew chief Rob Wendland has pushed this car into contending status, as shown by a 3.715 - 327.74 best in qualifying. While Reed nearly matched his qualifying time with a great 3.726 - 320.58 for the win, Shumake slowed slightly but still posted a very good 3.798 - 324.20 that showed how far this new team has come in a very short time.

(RIGHT) Points leader Justin Ashley (near lane) only qualified in the #7 spot and drew a tough opponent, Spencer Massey (far lane) in the first round. Driving the Krista Baldwin car, Massey nearly matched his 3.728 qualifying best, carding an excellent 3.735 - 323.66. It wasn't quite enough to get past Ashley, who left first by nine thousandths, and ran a little quicker at 3.711 - 329.67 to take a less than a car length win and move into the next round.

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FUNNY CAR Eliminations - Round ONE

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TOP FUEL Eliminations - Round TWO

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FUNNY CAR Eliminations - Round TWO

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PRO MODIFIED - Eliminations Round THREE

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LEGENDS NITRO FUNNY CAR - Eliminations Round TWO

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TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR - Eliminations Round THREE

TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER - Eliminations Round THREE

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TOP FUEL Eliminations - Round THREE

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The latest update as of November 3, 2024

24 annual Ford Performance NHRA Nationals - The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway - Las Vegas, NV

NOON UPDATE:

We're well into the final day of the Las Vegas event, with the first round of PRO eliminations complete, and the first two rounds of elimations for Pro Mod and Top Alcohol in the books. Anything to report? Yes, and Yes! The biggest news so far is the ascension of perennial contender Shawn Cowie, to the top of the standings in Top Alcohol Dragster. He's advanced to the semifinals and is now TEN points ahead of second place Hunter Green, who has been eliminated from contention as he's run out of points earning events for the season.

There are four other racers who could overtake Cowie for the championship, but only one, defending champion Julie Nataas, can do it today. She would have to win the event, and Cowie would have to lose in the semifinal round to make that happen. But she would only be FOUR points in front of Cowie going into the final two events of the 2024 season. Next week's West Regional at Las Vegas, and the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals at Pomona in two weeks. Other racers with a chance to upend Cowie, are Jackie Fricke, who will have a final shot at Pomona, Matt Cummings, and Angelle Sampey. Fricke has the best chance of that trio, as she "only" has to win at Pomona and hope that Cowie doesn't win this event or go past the second round at Pomona.

Facing an even taller mountain to climb is Cummings, who not only needs to win Pomona, but has to also win at next week's regional at Las Vegas. In just as deep is Sampey, who also has to win both events. However, if Cowie wins this event later today, that would eliminate Cummings from contention, and Cowie would only need to get past the first round at Pomona to clinch the championship, even if Sampey can run the table by taking back-to-back regional and national event wins. Very long odds indeed.

More updates coming later today and all day tomorrow. Stay tuned!

4:00 PM UPDATE:

The finals are set for the Top Alcohol, Pro Mod, and Top Fuel classes. Unfortunately, due to a major oildown from the broken rear end in Doug Kalitta's Top Fuel car, it appears that racing will not resume until Monday morning. It's been a cool windy day at The Strip and with the time required to remove all the synthetic gear lube and re-prep an already cold track, the decision has been made to postpone the balance of eliminations until tomorrow, starting (hopefully) at 9:00 am.

We can report some big news from the Pro Mods, as Kelowna, BC's Jordan Lazic has won the Congruity Pro Mod World Championship for the 2024 season. He defeated former champion Kris Thorne with his quickest run of the weekend, a 5.759 - 247.57, while Thorne lost an engine at half track and coasted to a losing 6-second time. In the Top Alcohol Funny Car semifinals, already crowned champion Sean Bellemeur advanced to his eighth national event final of the season and only has to win the final to cap a "perfect" 850 point season. That's the maximum number of points possible to earn in the top alcohol categories. His last hurdle to that achievement is the #2 driver in the standings, young Maddi Gordon, who's had an awesome rookie season, with four national event finals under her belt, winning one, and three regional wins to her credit.

In the Top Alcohol Dragster category, Shawn Cowie has advanced to the final round and could have an almost insurmountable lead in the championship standings if he can get past defending champion Julie Nataas. That's no easy task as Nataas set low e.t. of the meet with a winning 5.211 in her semifinal win, while Cowie has posted back-to-back 5.26 times in the quarter and semi-finals. If Nataas turns on the winlight in the final, she'll only be SEVEN points behind Cowie, and within striking distance going into the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals at Pomona.

While the distance between the contenders seems close, Cowie does hold an advantage as he can waive a first-round loss (Brainerd), and increase his point totals by simply winning his first round race at the finals. If he can, then Nataas would have to win Pomona to take the championship, or be runnerup if Cowie falls in the first round. Simply put, the odds greatly favour Cowie at this point.

In the pro categories, only the Top Fuel final is set, after a crazy match between Shawn Langdon and Doug Kalitta ended up putting the kibosh on the event today. Kalitta broke the rear end before half track and could only watch Langdon streak away toward an easy win. But Langdon was fighting the car as it kept heading for the centerline, finally taking out the finish line e.t. and speed timing blocks, and handing the win to the broken entry of Kalitta. Despite the "gift" round win, defending champion Kalitta is in fourth place in the standings, 85 points behind the leader, Justin Ashley. A miracle finish to Kalitta's season is improbable but never say never in drag racing. Facing Kalitta in the final is an even more improbable championship contender, Brittany Force, who is in eighth place, and 138 out of the top spot, an almost impossible task to catch Ashley.

Much, much more tomorrow. Stay tuned!

The latest update as of November 2, 2024

24 annual Ford Performance NHRA Nationals - The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway - Las Vegas, NV

TOP FUEL - Qualifying Session #3

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TOP FUEL - Qualifying Session #4 (FINAL)

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FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #4 (FINAL)

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TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER - Eliminations Round ONE

The latest update as of November 1, 2024

24 annual Ford Performance NHRA Nationals - The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway - Las Vegas, NV

There were storylines galore at the penultimate race of the 2024 season, the Ford Performance NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. We start our coverage with the first qualifying session of the nitro burners, with Funny Car leading off, followed by the long skinny Top Fuel cars.

FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #1

A full field and then some were in evidence, as 21 cars filled the flopper pits at the start of qualifying.

(LEFT) First out of the lanes was a new car, the "Nitro Moose" entry of the Winefsky family. Slated to drive the car in 2025 is young Dylan Winefsky, but for this debut, they chose to put veteran John Hale in the seat as they work out the setup on the all-new car. Hale's first effort ended before it began as the idle stuck on the burnout, forcing him to shut the car off.

(RIGHT) Next up was seldom seen Tim Gibbons in the "Big Time" entry. He made a decent pass to start his weekend, dropping a cylinder early and slowly drifting to the right before crossing the finish line with a 4.245 - 238.85 coming up on the timing system.

(LEFT) Second generation nitro racer Steven Densham, with father Gary tuning laid down a blazing burnout before making a good pass at 4.017 - 291.19. He was running well until shortly before the finish line, when it started to labor and put out a big cloud of smoke in the shutdown area.

(RIGHT) A great shot of two second generation So-Cal nitro racers, as Steven Densham (near lane) faced Jason Rupert in the far lane. With some tuning help from Rahn Tobler, Rupert laid down the first 3-second pass of the event, with a very good 3.996 - 318.62 lighting up the scoreboard.

(LEFT) Running by himself when scheduled opponent Terry Haddock elected to sit out the session, the ever-popular Jeff Diehl in the "So-Cal Speed Shop" entry made a serious effort to get back into the 3-second zone, and just fell short when the car nosed over before the finish line. It still ran 4.049 - 289.45 and gave crew chief Tony Shortall something to work with in the next session.

(RIGHT) The next pair saw Paul Lee (near lane) pull into an immediate lead over slow-leaving Buddy Hull (far lane). The gap increased substantially as they moved down track, with Hull lifting before the finish line to record a 4.207 - 275.34. Lee, however, kept the hammer down all the way and took over the top spot on the ladder with a season best 3.879 - 333.49 timeslip.

(LEFT) Steadily improving the performance after a tough first half of the season, the Richards brothers, with Dave Richards at the controls, posted another 3-second pass, with a 3.970 - 317.27 glowing on the scoreboard.

(RIGHT) Pulling into an immediate lead over Chad Green in the far lane, the "Bandero Tequila" Toyota Camry of Alexis DeJoria blasted into the 3's with a strong 3.995 - 282.42 pass. The speed was down as the car drifted towards the wall late in the run, eventually scraping the wall with apparently minimal damage.

(LEFT) Joining the ever-growing group of 3-something e.t.'s, Daniel Wilkerson pushed the "Scag" entry to a 3.936 - 321.73 to slot into the #4 spot on the ladder. The car dropped a cylinder on the top end and slowed a little but it didn't affect the elapsed time.

(RIGHT) Running in the second to last pair of the round, Ron Capps took over the top spot in the field with a very strong 3.860 - 330.96 to knock Paul Lee off the top rung. It's been a tough season for Capps, as he's made it to five final rounds, but has yet to enter the winners circle and is out of contention for the championship.

The final pair featured the all-but-confirmed new world champion Austin Prock (not shown), and teammate Jack Beckman (aka: John Forcein the points stadndings). While Beckman ran quicker and faster than Capps, his 3.859 - 332.43 was only second best to Prock's 3.843 - 333.33. Watching it all unfold from behind the starting line was John Force as his team cars took the top two spots at the end of the first qualifying session.

TOP FUEL - Qualifying Session #1

Similar to the Funny Cars, the Top Fuel field was oversubscribed with 19 cars on hand looking to grab one of the 16 spots available for eliminations.

(LEFT) You can't always tell a book by the cover, as the Krista Baldwin car, with backing from "McLeod Clutches" was being driven this weekend by veteran Spencer Massey. Following some updates to Massey's former ride, the ex-Pat Dakin car, the decision to put Massey in a familiar seat was an easy one. The car left strong but lit the tires before the 660' mark and slowed to a 4.485 - 175.90 clocking.

(RIGHT) Another driver in a different car was Will Smith in the Luigi Novelli-owned "National Machine Repair" entry. Following some extensive upgrades to the car by the Lagana brothers, and some recent health issues for Luigi, it was decided to put Smith in the hot seat. He double-stepped the launch, killing the early incrementals, but did keep the throttle open all the way to the finish line, stopping the timers with a 4.123 - 292.14 result.

(LEFT) Hard trier Lex Joon made his best pass in quite a while, nearly eclipsing his career best 3.85 e.t., with an excellent run to 800' before he was forced to shut off as the car started drifting towards the guardwall. His numbers came up as 3.902 at only 268.01 mph, indicating there was a competitive tuneup in the car.

(RIGHT) Another European import, Ida Zetterstrom from Finland, only started her NHRA career in August at Brainerd, and became competitive right away with a semifinal finish at her first national event. Since then the winlights haven't been turning on and her Vegas weekend didn't start well as the tires started smoking at the 330' mark, and a shutoff 6-second pass resulted.

(LEFT) Wearing new "GESI" livery, Shawn Reed looked to continue his ever-improving performance levels, starting with a strong burnout to open his event. He did just that, rocketing to the #1 spot with a great 3.751 - 324.75 pass.

(RIGHT) Running alongside Reed in the other lane, Josh Hart laid down a decent 3.852 - 326.08 set of numbers that showed horsepower on the big end, but a set of somewhat underwhelming early (60' to 330') numbers for the porovisional #2 spot in the field. With ten more cars waiting in the staging lanes, that e.t. certainly wouldn't hold up very long.

(LEFT) Not in contention for the championship in his "rookie" season in Top Fuel, Tony Stewart came into the event solidly in the Top Ten and hoping to move up a spot or more in the standings before the end of the season. He started his Vegas expedition with a strong burnout.

(RIGHT) When the ambers flashed, Stewart was off on a good pass, and kept all the cylinders lit all the way to the finish line. He stopped the timers with a solid 3.781 - 327.98 that slotted him into the #2 spot in the field, at least temporarily.

(LEFT) Hoping to find her way into a final round for the first time in 2024, Brittany Force staged up with her (rather) famous father John Force observing intently from behind. She lowered the boom on the field with the first 3.60 pass of the session, puting a "monster" (pun intended) run of 3.675 - 336.74 up on the scoreboard. That gave her the top spot on the ladder by nearly a tenth of a second.

(RIGHT) Wearing a "jazzed" up wrap, with Evel Knievel billboarded on the side, Clay Millican wanted to be spectacular, but in a good way, with a quick start to the event. Millican launched hard, kept it hooked uo all the way, finally carding a 3.738 - 331.52 to jump into the #2 spot and stake his claim for a good starting position going into eliminations.

(LEFT) The second to last pair of the session featured two of the heavy hitters, including the #3 in the standings, Shawn Langdon. The second member of the Kalitta Motorsports Team made a strong statement with his opening salvo of 3.706 - 333.74 jumping over everyone (except Force) to claim the #2 spot in the field.

(RIGHT) Running alongside Langdon was multi-time world champion Steve Torrence, currently in the #4 spot in the Top Fuel points. He was just a few ticks slower than Langdon on this run, ringing up an excellent 3.714 - 333.74 clocking that matched Langdon on speed, and only eight thousandths of a second slower in elapsed time.

(LEFT) The top two in the points standings closed out the first round of qualifying, with Justin Ashley leading the way. He made a good run, but not quite good enough as his 3.726 - 332.26 "only" placed him #4 on the qualifying list.

(RIGHT) In the other lane was #2 in the points, , and he failed to keep pace with Ashley from the 330' mark. As he neared the 660' clocks, a head gasket let go, slowing him to a 4.116 at only 213.91 mph. That placed him #12 of the 18 drivers that made the opening qualifying session.

FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #2

More than half (ten to be exact) the field was already in the 3-second zone after the first session, and some of the heavier hitters were well outside that area, so it was to be expected that the bump spot of 5.758, held down by Chris Morel would be quickly obliterated in the second stanza of Funny Car qualifying.

(LEFT) Back up to the starting line for another attempt to get the "Nitro Moose" down the track, John Hale failed to get to the 330' clocks before clicking it off. A cylinder dropped out on the launch and with the car obviously down on power, Hale did the smart thing and shut off it to an 8-second e.t.

(RIGHT) Also running on a solo, Tim Gibbons was looking to knock a few tenths of his first session 4.245 pass. It wasn't to be as the car started moving around early, then dropped a cylinder and shut off before the 660' mark. The end result was a slower timeslip at 4.780 - 170.95 mph. That left him in the #15 spot in the provisional field.

(LEFT) After limping across the finish line with an 8-second run in the first session, Chad Green was looking to get back into familiar, ie.t 3-second, territory in the second go-round. He warmed up the tires before getting ready to run. Unfortunately, things went from bad to worse as the car dropped a cylinder on the launch and shut off before the 330' mark to a 9-second elapsed time.

(RIGHT) Also looking for better performance after clocking in at 4.049 in the first session, Jeff "The Surfer" Diehl was on a strong pass until the car started drifting towards the centerline past the 660' timers, forcing him to click it off a little early, but still knocking off a bit of e.t. The result was a solid and consistent 4.039 - 273.61 to solidify his hold on the #12 spot in the field.

(LEFT) The Jim Head team, with Blake Alexander driving wanted to get back on track and into the qualified field that was currently bump spotted at 4.205. They did that, and a lot more, as Alexander laid down a great 3.887 - 322.42 to jump from the 18th spot to #5 and well into the top half of the field.

(RIGHT) With the sharpest looking "old skool" metalflake paint - not wrap - Reno's "Little City Charger" of Chris Morel wanted to get back into the field after being bumped out earlier in the session. It didn't work out well , as he shook the tires early, and pulled the plug before the 330' clocks, coasting to a 7-second time.

(LEFT) Needing to step up at least a little bit to get off the bump spot, Buddy Hull wanted to move up in the Jim Dunn owned and tuned entry. It didn't go according to plan as the tires lit up as soon as he hit the throttle, resulting in a 13-second e.t. at 67 mph. Despite that setback he was locked into the #16 spot until tomorrow's third round of qualifying.

(RIGHT) Not used to running this deep into a qualifying session, California's Jason Rupert was determined to back up his first session 3.996 effort. The body was looking a little barren, with only a few small sponsorships visible but the team was ready to run with the bigger dogs. The tires broke loose early and cut short the acceleration as Rupert slowed to a 6-second pass, leaving him in the #12 spot in the field.

(LEFT) Following his first session 3.904 clocking, Cruz Pedregon wanted to join the ever increasing - six to this point - crowd in the 3.80-zone. He ran well this time, but the performance fell off a little to a 3.991 - 316.75 as a dropped cylinder dashed his hopes. His earlier pass left him in the #8 spot, in the top half of the field.

(RIGHT) The two JFR cars met in the final pair of the session and it was expected to be a battle for the top spot in the field. However, it didn't turn out that way as both drivers lost traction early. Austin Prock (near lane) tried to pedal but gave it up before the 330' timing block, while Jack Beckman (far lane) didn't bother getting back on the throttle as they both coasted to 6-and 7-second clockings to close the second qualifying session.

TOP FUEL - Qualifying Session #2

Only 18 of the 19 cars entered appeared for the first qualifying session, and there were some troubled runs from teams that usually run strong, resulting in a desultory 4.670 bump spot. With the sun setting and the air cooling, expectations were for some much quicker and faster runs in this session.

(LEFT) Opening the session on a solo run, Top Fuel rookie, and second generation nitro racer, Travis Shumake prepared to unleash the performance of his car that had been prepped by the Scrappers Racing team. Their work paid off handsomely as Shumake notched career best numbers of 3.8987 - 309.20 to vault all the way into the #10 spot. His speed was down a little as the car dropped a cylinder late in the run.

(RIGHT) After a less than satisfactory result (6.962) in the first round of qualifying, Tony Schumacher was looking for much better numbers in this session. It didn't happen as the tires broke loose before the 660' mark and despite knocking more than two seconds off his previous e.t., the 4.680 -161.81 result left him in the #19 spot going into Saturday's final two qualifying sessions.

(LEFT) Running in the second pair of the session after a poor result in the previous round, defending world champion Doug Kalitta launched hard with the header flames up as he rocketed to the #3 spot (from #18) by way off a 3.707 - 330.96 clocking. He was under 3-seconds at the 660' mark and on track to a 3.60 pass before the header flames started flickering on the top end.

(RIGHT) With help from Rodger Brogdon's RoofTec company, Scott Palmer entered the final two events of the season, looking to salvage something of a very tough year. He ran strong early numbers in the first session before fading to a 4.315 e.t. that had him in the #17 spot and he ran worse here as the car lit the tires instantly on the launch.

(LEFT) Running by himself as Lex Joon elected to sit out the session, Will Smith wanted to move up from the bump spot of 4.123. He did improve but a 4.053 - 285.65 wasn't enough to surpass the #15 qualfying mark of 3.943, held down by Jasmine Salinas.

(RIGHT) The call came out to "fire the next pair" and Clay Millican (far lane), and Shawn Reed in the near lane heeded the command. They both went up in smoke early and only Reed tried - and failed - to pedal the car to a decent run. The results were 7-something for Millican and 5.51 for Reed. Obviously, no help for either racer.

(LEFT) The #15 qualifier, Jasmine Salinas didn't improve on her earlier numbers, losing traction early and shutting off to a 6-second clocking.

(RIGHT) Joining the "busted run brigade" next was Tony Stewart, even though he looked good on the launch, before smoking the tires enroute to a 6-second e.t.

(LEFT) It got even worse for the next contestant as points leader Justin Ashley ignited the tires before the car moved six feet and simnply coasted down track to a 15-second elapsed time.

(RIGHT) After all the aborted runs as the faster cars seemed to all go "over center", hopes were riding on the #1 qualifier, Brittany Force, to save face for the Top Fuel contingent. Sadly, it wasn't to be as she got past the 60' mark, and a little bit, before going.... up in smoke and clicking it off to a 7.40 - 74.00 timeslip. That ended the second session with the final five pairs running a collective best of 5.500 - 130.86 (Shawn Reed).

The latest update as of October 28, 2024

Top Alcohol Dragster UPDATE

Before we get into the final Hot Rod Heritage Series event of the season, the California Hot Rod Reunion, we've got an update to yesterday's note about entries in the Top Alcohol Dragster class for this week's Ford Performance NHRA Nationals. The field has now grown to 26 entries, as Aaron Olivarez snuck in before the deadline. It will be his first appearance in nearly a decade, presumably with Jim Rizzoli tuning the injected nitro entry. Of the 25 cars on the list, a full one third of them, nine out of 26 are of the supercharged alcohol variety, showing that the blown combination is far from dead despite the preponderance of injected nitro cars in the class.

The 26-car field is the largest in Las Vegas history and ties for the largest of the past six years with the 2018 U.S. Nationals. The only larger field, with 27 entries was at Dallas in 2017 and 30 in 2016. And you have to go all the way back to 2008 to find a larger field, 32 cars in fact, at Chicago's Route 66 Raceway. Taking it one step further by a "number nerd" like myself, the largest entry lists in NHRA history - to as far back as I can reach (1998) - shows 36 entries at the second Chicago race in 2002, and 35 at the 1998 U.S. Nationals.

California Hot Rod Reunion - Famoso Dragway - Bakersfield, CA

The major championship battle was the four-way fight for the Nitro Funny Car crown. Points leader Nathan Sitko (Edmonton, AB Canada) was just ahead of defending series champion Bobby Cottrell, while Geoff Monise and Shane Westerfield were close enough to snatch the title. Despite qualifying #3, and leaving first by nearly half a tenth, Sitko smoked the tires and lost in the first round of eliminations. The #2 qualifier, Westerfield got left on, then smoked the tires and also lost in the opening stanza.

That opened the door for Cottrell and Monise to catch Sitko and they all advanced to the second round with strong runs. Monise was the quickest at 5.601 - 258.02, while Cottrell trailed in the e.t. department with a pretty good 5.700 - 256.26Z winning pass. In the second round Jeff Arend ran 5.582 - 262.00, which stood up as quickest and fastest of eliminations. That gave Arend lane choice over Monise in the semifinal, while Cottrell didn't have his choice against Mike Peck Sr..

The latest update as of October 27, 2024

24 annual Ford Performance NHRA Nationals - The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway - Las Vegas, NV

There's just three races left on NHRA's calendar, two national events, and one regional. The next three weeks are going to see some tremendously exciting racing as the world championships are decided in the Pro and Pro Sportsman categories. Actually one of the championships, Top Alcohol Funny Car, has been taken by now three-time champion Sean Bellemeur in the Tony Bartone-owned car.

We can't forget Pro Mod, as 23 drivers are entered in the final event of the Congruity NHRA Pro Mod series at Las Vegas. The top 17 racers in the standings are on that list, and 13 of them have at least a mathematical chance to secure the championship. Adding some serious spice to the event, two racers, Justin Bond and Jordan Lazic, are from my home province of British Columbia. They sit just 12 and 24 points behind the leader, Khalid Al Balooshi, and could easily overtake him for the championship. However, there's four more racers within 50 points of the lead, and a total of 11 sitting less than 100 points behind Balooshi. It's going to be one very intense event for those racers, and reaction times are likely to decide many of the results.

In Top Alcohol Dragster, there's a very tight battle raging among seven of the top eight racers in the category. They are all within striking distance of the current points leader, Hunter Green, who has used up all his available points earning events, and can only act as a "blocker" to the other contenders. Closest of them are Jackie Fricke and Shawn Cowie, just 11 and 12 points respectively behind Green. While Mike Coughlin (#4) is out of contention as he's out of events like Green, there are four other racers within 75 points of the lead. Defending world champion Julie Nataas is only 39 points behind, while Matt Cummings is currently 56 back, but he could trim that margin to 35 points if he can win the weather-delayed final round of last week's Phoenix Western Regional event.

The Eastern Regional this weekend at Maple Grove made no changes to the Top Ten standings in either Top Alcohol Dragster or Funny Car and last week's Western Regional saw only Cummings improve his points totals in the Dragster category. On the Funny Car side, Maddi Gordon and Brian Hough will meet in the Phoenix semifinal round during qualifying at Las Vegas, and Hough has the most to gain as he could pass Bob McCosh and move into second place in the standings. On the flip side, if Gordon can prevail over Hough and take out Don Hudson in the Phoenix final, she could solidify her hold on the #2 spot in the standings.

One final note for today is the number of entrants in the TAD category at Las Vegas. There's 25 cars entered, the largest field since the 2018 U.S. Nationals. It's going to be an absolute war in every round of eliminations, and qualifying is going to be a major battle just to be in the elite 16 that go into eliminations. The bump spot at Vegas for the fall race has been 5.337 for the past two years, and the all-time quickest bump in the category was set just two weeks ago at Dallas, at 5.315. Could we see an all 5.20's or better field this coming week? Stay tuned for that and don't forget, our photographer, Bob Snyder, is already packed and warming up the van for his trip to The Strip.

The latest update as of October 23, 2024

UPDATES to the Top Alcohol Dragster and Funny Car points standings

Last weekend's event at Firebird Motorsports Park was not completed, but to the point that eliminations were postponed, we have calculated the points earned and where the contenders for the Top Alcohol Dragster world championship stand. The Funny Car championship was won by Sean Bellemeur and the "Killer B's" at the NHRA Carolina Nationals (Charlotte, NC) last month, but the battle for positions #2 through #10 are still underway.

The biggest development for the dragsters at Phoenix concerned the points leader, Hunter Green, who failed to qualify in his last points earning event of the season. That leaves him with 562 points, still at the top of the list, but seriously vulnerable to Jackie Fricke with 551 points, and Shawn Cowie with 550 points. While both racers have used up all their regional chances, they are entered in the final two national events, and only need two round wins to overtake Green in the standings. Whether it's two first round wins, or one semi-final at either race, they are both more than capable of achieving those goals. After that, it may come down to one or even two head-to-head meetings between those two to decide the 2024 world championhsip.

While Mike Coughlin (#4) has run out of events to claim and can't climb any higher in the standings, the #5 through #8 racers are still within reach of Green's spot. Defending world champion, Julie Nataas, needs to win one of the final two national races to pass Green, or make two final rounds. Not easy, but with Randy Meyer tuning, it's possible. Below her, Matt Cummings is in a stronger position as he has advanced to the final round at the postponed Phoenix regional, and could enter the final regional event of the season at Las Vegas (the week after the nationals). If he can double up at the nationals next weekend, taking the regional race, and the national event, he would overtake Green. Even if he doesn't, he still has the second regional, and Pomona to do the deed.

A bit of a longshot, but with the strongest mathematical possibility is Top Alcohol rookie, Angelle Sampey, who could finish the season with a total of 701 points if she could win the two regionals (Reading, PA and Las Vegas, NV) on the schedule, and the two national events. Just winning the regionals would give her 604 points. A win and a semifinal would also put her ahead of Green, but would most likely leave her behind the strongest contenders, Fricke and Cowie. It is to be noted that Sampey has entered both remaining national events, and could take over the points lead without travelling all the way to Pennsylvania this coming weekend, and simply compete three weeks in a row out west.

We doubt that this week's regional at Maple Grove will have much, if any, affect on the championship standings, but next week in Las Vegas will be absolutely critical to the racers vying for the championship crown for the 2024 season.

The situation in Funny Car is much more straightforward. Sean Bellemeur has the championship won and the only goal his team has left is to finish with a "perfect" season, ie, seven national and three regional wins for the maximum possible 850 points. All they need to achieve that is to win the Las Vegas national event. Easier said than done, but with that team, almost anything is possible. Sitting well behind Bellemeur in second place, in a very creditable performance for the first season driver of the Gordon family car is Madison "Maddi" Gordon, who will try to hold off Brian Hough, who is 52 points behind in the #4 spot in the standings, and coming on strong with a late season charge.

Gordon and Hough will meet in the semifinals of the postponed Phoenix event, during Saturday qualifying next week at Vegas, and if Hough can turn on the winlight and get past returning veteran Don Hudson in the subsequent final round, will close the gap to just TEN points behind Gordon. As he has run two fewer national events than her, he will get the chance to pass her for second in the standings going into the final races of the season. Below Gordon and Hough, only Annie Whiteley has a mathematical chance of overtaking either of them as no one else in the Top Ten is entered in either of the final national events.

However the chips fall, and the scoreboards light up, it's going to be an exciting few weeks of drag racing as the 2024 NHRA season races to a conclusion.

The latest update as of October 22, 2024

FIREBIRD FALL SHOOTOUT - Firebird Motorsports Park - Chandler, AZ

Here's a twist to the old adage about "bringing a gun to a knife fight" (or vice-versa). On Friday night at Firebird, Dylan Winefsky brought the blown fuel "Nitro Moose" to the Top Alcohol shootout. The Winefsky team was shaking down the car and prepping young Dylan for his licensing runs at Las Vegas after the Ford Performance NHRA Nationals at the end of the month. The team will compete at that event with veteran driver John Hale in the cockpit.

Making his first pass(es) in an all-new BIG show Funny Car, young Dylan Winefsky put the "Nitro Moose" through a couple of burnouts and one launch that ended quickly with major tire shake. The track just wasn't prepped to handle the big horsepower on a cold evening.

Then it was down to business for the final Western Region Top Alcohol event of the 2024 season. It was quite interesting to see how many national championship contenders made the trek west to try to capture more points towards their title hopes. Among the dragsters were points leader Hunter Green, and #6 Matt Cummings. There were two other Top Ten racers competing, but #3 Shawn Cowie had used his allottment of regional events, and #10 Madison Payne was already eliminated from contention for the championship. It is to be noted that Cowie could hurt both Green and Cummings' chances if he could eliminate them on Saturday.

One more item of note is that of the 11 dragsters in the pits, the majority were running blown on alcohol, with six of the blower cars entered. Quite a change from the makeup of almost every field in the past year or three. Also to be noted is that we don't have a breakdown on what numbers the racers ran in each session, so we have simply reported their quickest e.t.'s.

TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER - Qualifying Session #1

(LEFT) Still fighting the good fight with a blown car, Medford Oregon's Mike Austin couldn't get a solid grip on the cold track as the LAD Automotive entry could only muster a non-qualifying 8.360 - 108.18 clocking.

(RIGHT) Following some strong runs at the U.S. Nationals, where she broke into the 5.20's in her blown alcohol car, Shaundra Blinzler fell well short of the bump spot of 7.159, with a best of 8.045 - 99.49 on her qualifying sheet.

(LEFT) The Darien & Grisel team, with Casey Grisel driving and Jerry Darien tuning has been running very strong since mid-season, starting with their dominating winning performance at the Northwest Nationals. They followed that up with a career best for Grisel at Dallas (5.185 - 278.09), and kept the beat going with a top qualifying 5.265 - 270.37 here. Grisel made strong runs in both sessions, as he ran even faster, at 271.24 on one of his attempts.

(RIGHT) Here's Grisel launching hard in the near lane, while long-time alky racer Chris Demke in the "Peen Rite" car punched his way into the field with a solid 5.415, coupled with a big speed of 271.45 mph. That was good for the #6 spot on the ladder.

(LEFT) Nearing the end of what had to be a disappointing season for the Duane Shields-owned "Muscle Milk" team, third-generation racer Madison Payne warmed the tires prior to her first qualifying shot. She got down the track strongly on both attempts, posting speeds of 272.94 and 273.77 mph, with her best e.t., 5.325 placing her in the #4 spot in the field.

(RIGHT) Here she is leaving the line (near lane) against Joey Severance in the far lane. The "J&A Services" has been seemingly been snakebitten all year, running strong then losing fire, breaking, shaking, smoking, etc. But they were on their game here, taking the second rung on the ladder with a very good 5.295 - 274.00 to lead all the supercharged cars in the field.

(LEFT) Making only one pass in qualifying, Shawn Cowie executed his patented high-revving, tire blazing burnout. He skipped the second session as the track cooled and he didn't feel any pressure to top the field as he was out of points earning opportunities.

(RIGHT) When this pair crossed the finish line, the scoreboards lit up BIG with some very solid numbers despite the cold air and track temperatures. In the near lane, Shawn Cowie stopped the clocks with an excellent 5.352 - 275.39, while in the far lane, Matt Cummings posted a very close 5.357 - 274.72 to slot in right behind Cowie on the qualifying list.

Coming into this event with a last chance to increase his points total, Hunter Green smoked the tires hard right off the line and coasted to a non-qualifying 11.458 e.t. at 68.26 mph. He would have needed to qualify and get past the first round to gain any points, and at this point, can only wait and watch what the racers chasing him do. NOTE: He has entered both the Las Vegas and Pomona national events, so we can presume that he plans to attempt to "block" the challengers to his points lead. If he can eliminate them before they overtake him, he might be able to hold on to the #1 spot, but he's less than one round win in front of Cowie and Fricke and that scenario seems improbable.

TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #1

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TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER - Qualifying Session #2

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TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #2

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ELIMINATIONS

We don't have any photos or details other than the e.t.'s and speeds for eliminations. It appears that there were a number of no-shows in the first round of Funny Car, as apparently Will Martin broke something on his first qualifying pass, and Hunter Jones appeared to suffer the same fate. On the dragster side, everyone showed - and most ran well - in the first round, but only two of the four semifinalists made it to the line, giving their opponents bye runs into the final round.

The latest update as of October 19, 2024

FIREBIRD FALL SHOOTOUT - Firebird Motorsports Park - Chandler, AZ

One of the three regional events remaining on the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series schedule is underway at Firebird Motorsports Park. Three qualifying sessions were held for the Top Alcohol cars yesterday, and their eliminations will start at 5:30pm today. We received a brief telephone report on the action from our photographer, BIG Bob Snyder, and we expect to see a batch of photos later today and tomorrow. He did indicate that our favourite (almost) local racer, Shawn Cowie was in the #3 spot on the ladder after the first session, and that seven Funny Cars were in attendance.

That was a very skimpy synopsis but we expected to be able to see much more detail from the NHRA.com "Divisional Live Timing" page. That didn't happen as NHRA listed the event as happening on Saturday and Sunday, instead of the actual dates of Friday - Saturday. Then we checked out the usually reliable results website, DragRaceCentral.com, but there was nothing there either as of 7:00am today. We'll just have to stay tuned to see what's happening at Firebird and when we do, we'll be able to generate a report, with pictures and details.

Something somewhat surprising happened on Thursday morning when media credentials arrived for Mr. Snyder to attend the FORD Performance NHRA Nationals at Las Vegas at the end of this month. The surprise was that they usually arrive no earlier than one week before a race and here it was a full two weeks in advance. Snyder's certainly going to be a busy guy for the next few weeks, as there is a request in the pipeline for credentials to the season ending In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals at Pomona two weeks later. And we'll be busy too, posting lots of photos and stories to go with the final races of the 2024 Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series.

The latest update as of October 14, 2024

POINTS Standings following the Texas NHRA FallNationals

We'll start our Monday morning musings with the latest updated points standings for the Countdown to The Championship (for the PRO competitors) and the Top Alcohol racers. Starting with this edition of the standings, you will notice the "points difference" numbers are in red for some racers. Those competitors have been mathematically eliminated from contention for the championship(s). Realistically, there are more than a few other racers that would need the leaders to not attempt at least one qualifying pass at either of the final two races, and gain maximum points at those two events to have the slightest chance of winning the season title. In other words: it's just not going to happen.

TOP FUEL: The most obvious change in the standings is at the top, with Justin Ashley taking over from Antron Brown. After Brown lost a very close first round match with Ashley, by less than two hundredths of a second, the way was cleared for Ashley to gain ground, which he certainly did. When his winlight came on in the final round, it gave him a lead of 44 points heading into the final two races on the tour. While Shawn Langdon held on to the #3 spot, he fell from 50 points behind Brown to 76 points back of Ashley. The next three racers gained one spot each, but only one, Clay Millican, closed the gap between himself and the points leader, getting 19 points, almost one round win, closer to the top, but still 114 points in arrears.

The biggest drop in the standings was experienced by the defending world champion, Doug Kalitta, who fell from #3 to #7, courtesy of his third 1st round loss in the first four races of the countdown. You could say that figuratively the wheels have truly fallen off his title defence, as he goes into Vegas 133 points out of first place. Making up nearly seven rounds of racing in two events is virtually impossible for him. One spot below Kalitta is two-time world champion Brittany Force whose chance to be in contention evaporated in a holeshot loss to Tony Schumacher in the second round of eliminations.

FUNNY CAR: The biggest news surrounding the FallNationals was Jack Beckman, in second place, being unable to race in eliminations due to a vertigo-like condition. That put a serious dent in his championship aspirations on behalf of John Force. He fell further back in the chase, from 105 to 147 points behind teammate Austin Prock, but it could have been worse if Prock hadn't lost in the semifinals when his throttle linkage unravelled on the burnout. Despite that setback, young Mr. Prock increased his lead over the former #3 racer, Bob Tasca III, who dropped a close first round race to Blake Alexander, when Tasca had to lift on the top end.

Taking over the third spot in the standings was the event winner, Matt Hagan, but he's 168 points out of first place, and his title hopes are looking slim at this point. Tasca dropped to #5, more than 50 points further behind Prock, and now has a 211-point deficit. Below him, no one has any realistic chance of contending, and the bottom five racers on the chart are already mathematically eliminated.

PRO STOCK: This category has boiled down to a basically four horse race, with #5 in the standings, Jeg Coughlin, the FallNationals event winner, sitting nearly 200 points behind leader Dallas Glenn. He gained 33 points on Glenn when Dallas lost in the semifinals, but it's not realistic to expect him to challenge for the title even if he sweeps the last two events of the countdown. The #6 racer, Matt Hartford is more than 300 points behind and his title hopes are more than precarious, while below him, the last seven racers on the list are already done for.

Closest pursuer to Glenn is still Aaron Stanfield, but he dropped from 31 points out of first, to 53 going into the second to last race of the season. The other two racers with a realistic chance of taking over the top spot changed places when Greg Anderson went to the final round, while former #3, Erica Enders, lost in the second round and fell 21 points further back to 111 behind. Anderson meanwhile, closed the gap by 36 points to just 90 points behind Glenn. It's going to be quite a battle between the two dominant teams in Pro Stock, the KB-Titan group (Dallas Glenn and Greg Anderson, and the Elite Performance super-team, with Erica Enders and Aaron Stanfield. It's most likely to come down to reaction times - and they will be close - over the last eight rounds of racing in 2024.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE: It's a lot of the "same old, same old", as the top six riders in the class all stayed in the same position going into and coming out of Dallas. Gaige Herrera won his first back-to-back races since mid-season, and put some distance (28 points) between himself and closest challenger, Matt Smith. A first round loss cost #3 Richard Gadson dearly as he fell nearly 100 points further behind Herrara and not sits 161 points behind. After starting the countdown with a win at Reading, Hector Arana Jr. (#4), has failed to get past the semifinals and is now 185 points out of the top spot. Below Arana, the next four racers are well out of contention, and below them, the bottom two are already guaranteed to have no chance for the championship.

Next up are the Top Alcohol categories where there's some real drama in the Dragster ranks, and another world championship clinched in the Funny Car category. The points standings for the Top Alcohol racers are harder to follow than for the Pro racers, due partly to the mix of national and regional event points that count towards the respective championships. Factor in the "waived" races and it becomes harder to see where things will end up from week to week. At this point in the season there are three regional and two national events left on the calendar, with the next two weeks seeing regional events, this week at Firebird Motorsports Park (Phoenix, AZ), and next week at Maple Grove Raceway (Reading, PA).

NOTES:Fields that have XXX filled in are events that are not possible for the racer to attend. Point numbers in red are waived races. There are two national and three regional events remaining on the schedule. The upcoming races entered by the Top Alcohol competitors on the graphics below. With two weeks to go before the entry deadline for the Ford Performance NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, we expect there will be numerous entries added, especially in the dragster category with the very close competition for the championship.

TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER Those closing races of the 2024 season could be critical for three of the racers in contention for the championship, especially the points leader, Hunter Green who has only more chance to gain points at a regional event, as all his national events are already claimed. Lower in the standings, Matt Cummings and Angelle Sampey have two more possible regional points earning opportunities, in addition to the final two national events. The defending world champion, Julie Nataas also has two national events to increase her total, while perennial contender, Shawn Cowie, likewise has two nationals left to fill his points card.

Only three of Top Ten are mathematically eliminated from the championship chase, with #4 Mike Coughlin, out of chances to catch Green, while #9 Karen Stalba and #10 Megan Smith cannot catch him either. On the other end of the scale, Green's closest pursuer, #2 Jackie Fricke, is only 11 points out of the top spot, while Cowie is just a single point behind her. The #5 through #7 racers are close also, with Nataas just 39 points behind, while Cummings is 56 back, and Sampey is lurking just 64 behind the leader. Even #8 in the standings, Finally, Joe Maynard is within striking distance, just 75 points out of first place.

It's going to be a very intense next five weeks for all the contenders, and the championship could easily down to the later rounds at the season ending In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals at Pomona in mid-November. We'll be updating the standings on a weekly basis from here to the end as it's expected that the last five events of the season will all have some impact on the title chase.

TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR What became obvious at the end of the NHRA Carolina Nationals (Charlotte, NC) in late September was that Greg Bellemeur had wrapped up his fourth world championship in Top Alcohol Funny Car. Following two years out of the top spot, the "Killer B's" went on a "revenge" (joking, of course) tour to retake the title from the Gordon family. They did just that and now only need to win at Las Vegas to complete a perfect 850-point (maximum possible) season.

Sitting well back in second place is rookie Maddi Gordon, who holds a not insurmountable lead over #3 Bob McCosh and #4 Brian Hough. Of the two, Hough has the best chance to overtake Gordon, with two national, and two regional events left to claim, while McCosh can only improve marginally at the final two national events. The only other racer in the Top Ten with a realistic chance to catch Gordon is #5 Phil Esz, while #6 Annie Whiteley and #7 Chris Foster have only remote chances to do so. Below them the bottom three racers are already mathematically eliminated.

The latest update as of October 13, 2024

39th annual Texas NHRA FallNationals - FINAL Eliminations

The latest update as of October 12, 2024

39th annual Texas NHRA FallNationals - FINAL Qualifying

The latest update as of October 11, 2024

39th annual Texas NHRA FallNationals

It's day SEVEN of the Stampede of Speed, but only the third day of qualifying for the FallNationals. Yesterday saw the first of three qualifying sessions for the Top Alcohol cars, and there were some very quick - and some not nearly so quick - runs made. The bump spot for the dragsters was a decent 5.497, with the top nine qualifiers bunched between 5.243 and 5.285. With two sessions remaining, the quickest field ever at the Texas Motorplex, in 2022, were all in at 5.339 or better. And the quickest field ever at an NHRA national event was the 2023 In-N-Out Burger Finals at Pomona, with the bump spot at 5.331. Both marks are in serious danger of being broken later today.

The Funny Cars weren't quite as quick but the top nine came in at 5.584 or better, with the top dog, Mick Steele, showing the potential of his injected nitro entry, as he led the field with a very strong 5.461 pass. In a bit of a surprise, a total of 17 cars filled the entry list, with only Bob McCosh sitting out the session.

NOON UPDATE: As expected, the second qualifying session for the Top Alcohol cars showed just how strong both fields were. The Funny Cars came out first and as could be expected, Sean Bellemeur rocketed to the top of the list with an excellent 5.459 - 269.04 in the Killer B's "Pirate Ship". When the tire smoke and clutch dust had cleared, the first 15 cars on the ladder were qualified at 5.596 or better, with the top five in the 5.40 zone. Sitting on the bump at 5.640 was Christine Foster, and just a few ticks behind her in the first alternate spot sat Alaska's Ray Martin at 5.678. Both racers have run in the 5.50's so the final session could see some real fireworks as the battle for a spot in the field concludes.

The dragster field tightened up considerably with the 15th qualifier (Madison Payne) in at 5.316, while Greg Hunter in the Canadian car of Doug Doucette holds down the bump spot at 5.386. Hunter's position is in serious jeopardy entering the final session, as defending world champion Julie Nataas is at the bottom of the 20-car list after two consecutive tire smokers. When was the last time a Randy Meyer-tuned car smoked the tires three times in a row? Like never, so you can expect that the bump will end up at 5.316 or better when qualifying finishes. Two of the other three alternates have run in the 5.20's in the past, so we could possibly see a 16-car field qualified in the 5.20's, or better. Stay tuned!

2:00 PM UPDATE: The final qualifying session for the Top Alcohol cars was also the first round of eliminations for the JEGS Allstars. Starting with the Funny Cars, the first four pairs to run were the JEGS qualifiers. In the second pair of the round, Christine Foster improved to a 5.583 to get off the bump spot and put Mark Billington there with his 5.596, making it a very quick field. Next out of the lanes was Ray Martin who needed to pick up nearly a tenth to get into the FallNationals elimination field. He almost did, falling just ONE thousandth of a second short with a very good 5.597. That solidified the field with everyone qualified in the 5.50's or better, including the lone alternate.

The dragsters set a new standard with the quickest field in the history of the sport. Coming into the final session, the bump spot Greg Hunter sat on the bump spot with a very good, but fragile 5.386 e.t. When Julie Nataas blasted her way into the field to the #9 spot, from the very bottom in #20, it pushed Hunter into the first alternate spot. After the other three non-qualifiers all failed to improve and make the field, it was down to Hunter and while he turned his best e.t. of the weekend, a 5.350, it wasn't enough to bump into the show. With the 16 cars from Mike Coughlin on top with a 5.216, down to Madison Payne on the bottom with a 5.315, the entire field were bunched within a tenth of a second. Eliminations are obviously guaranteed to be quite a show of quick e.t.'s and reaction times.

Next up today is the first session of PRO qualifying, then the second round of JEGS eliminations followed by the awesome "Friday Night Live" qualifying show under the lights. It offers more than $40,000 in bonus qualifying money, and the totally Texas scenario where the quickest qualifier in each class gets to sit on a mechanical bull until they are bumped off by a quicker qualifier. The last racer on the bull in each class will pick up the bonus bucks, with $15K each to the Top Fuel and Funny Car low qualifiers. It should be quite a show with some serious entertainment value.

6:00 PM UPDATE: Before the night time qualifying show got under way, the second round of JEGS Allstar competition for Top Alcohol Funny Car and Dragster took place. At the conclusion of the Funny Car segment, a special ceremony was held in the shutdown area where Sean Bellemeur was presented with his 2024 World Championship Trophy.

Photos copyright by NHRA.tv 2024

The four dragsters remaining in the JEGS eliminations all put up great performances, with the slowest e.t., a 5.236 by Karen Stalba, taking out the quicker and faster Shawn Cowie of British Columbia, Canada, who lost with his quickest pass of the weekend, a 5.215 at a booming 279.16 mph. In the other pairing, Julie Nataas earned the final round berth against Stalba by eliminating a slower reacting Matt Cummings. Cummings' 5.227 wasn't nearly enough to catch Nataas' low e.t. of the meet 5.212 effort.

The night time PRO qualifying session is underway and with the air and track temps cooling and density altitude dropping, there should be some spectacular performances coming. Stay tuned for further updates tomorrow morning.

The latest update as of October 9, 2024

39th annual Texas NHRA FallNationals

It's three events rolled into one, becoming the longest event on the NHRA schedule. It all started last Saturday, when the Stampede of Speed kicked off with a combinations country music festival and specialty match race. The "Texas Invitational" featured an all-Texas racer lineup, consisting of the Fuel Funny Car of Terry Haddock, the awesome "War Wagon" Fuel Altered driven by Kebin Kinsley and Outlaw Pro Mod racers, Frankie "Madman" Taylor and Brandon Pesz.

All four cars ran over two days and in the final on Sunday evening, Haddock took out Taylor, while Kinsley outran Pesz in the consolation final. Taking home the champion's belt (and it's a BIG one!) for the second year in a row, Terry was elated with his results and the entire show as a leadup to his return to the NHRA tour at this week's FallNationals. After competing at seven of the first nine races of the season, he's skipped the past seven races before getting back in action this week. And he'll be attending the final two races on the 2024 calendar to close out his season. As a sidenote, Kinsley is making his return in Top Fuel at this race for the first time since the 2022 edition. He'll be driving the Terry Totten entry.

Qualifying for the FallNationals started this afternoon for the sportsman racers and continues tomorrow with Top Alcohol joining the party, followed by the PRO cars on Friday. There's full and overflowing fields in almost all categories and with only two races remaining in the Countdown to the Championship after eliminations on Sunday, the pressure and drama are sure to be intense.

The latest update as of October 1, 2024

TOP ALCOHOL Championship Standings

We're a little late on this item, but it's time to post the latest points standings for the Top Alcohol categories. There's still at least ten contenders for the Dragster title, but for the Funny Cars.... it's a done deal, with Sean Bellemeur and the "Killer B's" reclaiming the championship after two seasons on the outside, looking in.

The graphics below show the current points total, the possible points total and which national events the racers have entered. The entries are as of this morning, so they are obviously subject to change. We'll post updated figures after next week's Texas NHRA FallNationals. At this writing, there's three national and four regional events remaining on the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series schedule.

NOTES: Fields that have XXX filled in are events that are not possible to attend for the racer. Point numbers in red are waived races.

NOTE: The graphic above was correct at the time of posting, but since then Julie Nataas, Karen Stalba and Megan Smith have entered the Dallas event. That means that the entire Top Ten in the standings will be in competition together. That could have some serious consequences to the standings.

It's a fairly close race for the championship at this point with everyone in the top ten with a mathematical chance to overtake the leader. However, there is a regional event at St. Louis this weekend and the NHRA Texas FallNationals at Dallas next weekend and the results from those two events should give us a clearer picture of just who is a contender for the Top Alcohol Dragster crown. With 19 cars already on the entry list and nine of them in the Top Ten there could be some serious movements in the standings.

Despite holding down the #2 spot in the standings, Mike Coughlin is most susceptible to being overtaken by most of the other racers on the list. And at the bottom of the pack in #10, Megan Smith would have to win three consecutive national events and a regional race to squeak ahead of points leader Hunter Green. Frankly, that is not going to happen. Green is somewhat vulnerable as Dallas will be his last points earning national event, but he has two regionals left to claim points if he's willing to travel. The next two weekends will be critical to everyone in the Top Ten as the results from those races could go a long way to determining the 2024 champion.

The defending Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series TAD champion, Julie Nataas, in her last year of A/Fuel competition is not yet entered for any more events and looks unlikely to mount a charge to the championship. Perennial contender Shawn Cowie has had an eminently forgettable season, starting with not qualifying at the Winternationals, and three first round losses, one of which was on a bye run at Seattle. A persistent electrical gremlin caused the car to lose fire at the end of the burnout, and it bit him at the second regional race at Woodburn before the Northwest Nationals. Without all that bad luck he would have a solid lead in the standings.

There's a couple of darkhorses on the list, with Angelle Sampey able to accumulate the most points of anyone in the category. Again, it's going to take some travelling and hard racing to make up the 85 point gap between her and Hunter Green. The other racer with much to gain, if he enters the last three national events and two of the regionals, is Matt Cummings and he could make a big leap up the standings if he runs at St. Louis and does well there and at Dallas.

NOTE: The graphic above was correct at the time of posting, but since then five more have entered the event, meaning that the Top Nine racers in the standings will be competing at Dallas. While it won't have any effect on the top spot, there could be some shuffling lower down in the standings.

It's a mystery to me why Sean Bellemeur has not been crowned the World Champion in Top Alcohol Funny Car for 2024. He's got an insurmountable lead in the standings, with even #2 racer, Maddi Gordon unable to catch him after two consecutive first round losses at Brainered and Indy. Up until the Labor Day weekend she had a longshot chance to overtake Bellemeur for the points lead, but that chance is gone.

With declining participation in the Funny Car category, evidenced by only 32 racers entering a national event this season, and not a single full field at the first 10 races on the tour, there's less drama in the class. Yes, there are a bunch of cars that consistently produce great performances, but not enough to make for exciting competition at every event. Sometimes it seems that the finalists are almost a foregone conclusion by the end of qualifying. While the NHRA has tried to increase participation in the class by adding an A/Fuel option, so far, only two racers have appeared with an injected nitro engine and only has run at a national event.

As the season winds down, the largest field of the 2024 series will be on hand at Dallas next week, with 15 cars on the pre-entry list. Entries for the final two events of the season are very few so far but the sportsman racers tend to enter much closer to the deadline than the pro classes.

The latest update as of September 30, 2024

Then there were THREE.....

....national events remaining on the 2024 Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series schedule. It's seem like only a week or two (actually four) weeks ago that the Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals wrapped up at Indianapolis, and now we're half way through the Countdown To The Championship. This is an "off week" for the travelling acceleration show, but it's followed by the annual "Stampede of Speed", a week-long event, at the Texas Motorplex. See the latest PRO standings below and our prognostications of just who has a chance to challenge for the championship.... and who is essentially working toward better results for next season.

PS: To save on readers having to do the math, we've listed the gap between the leaders in each categories and the racers chasing them.

TOP FUEL: The win streak of Antron Brown ended in a cloud of tire smoke in the second round at St. Louis, but he still maintained a 34 point lead over Justin Ashley. The next three racers on the list, Shawn Langdon defending world champion Doug Kalitta and Steve Torrence are all less than 90 points behind Brown, \ and well within striking distance. From there down the gaps widen to the point that #9 Tony 'Smoke' Stewart is 194 points behind with only 12 rounds of racing left in the season. Admittedly, there are "points and a half" on offer at the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals at Pomona, but it's going to take a combination of a bunch of winlights by the lower racers in the standings and some serious stumbles by the racers above them to close the significant gaps.

FUNNY CAR: It was looking like a runaway for Austin Prock but his 10-round winning streak ended in the semifinals at St. Louis. Taking advantage of that loss was John Force (aka: Jack Beckman) who won the event, moving up to #2 in the standings, and closed the margin to "only" 105 points. The next three racers with a realistic chance of competing for the championship range from 159 to 194 and 205 points behind Prock. Two of them, Ron Capps and Matt Hagan are former champions, and they're joined by #3 Bob Tasca III in the #3 slot. Below the top five, the next closest racer, J.R. Todd, is 253 points out of the lead and it tails off seriously from that point down to the bottom of the standings.

PRO STOCK: The domination by the first four racers in the standings continued at St. Louis, with all of them reaching the semifinals for the third consecutive race. Dallas Glenn took his second win in the countdown and opened a slight lead over #2 Aaron Stanfield, who now sits 31 points behind him. Falling a little further back, as they both lost in the semifinals, were #3 Erica Enders (90 points behind) and #4 Greg Anderson, who's now 126 points behind the leader. From that point the gaps widen considerably with #5 Jeg Coughlin Jr. 232 points behind and from there on it's 280 to 310 points for the bottom five in the Top Ten. With only three events remaining it's pretty much over for those racers unless the wheels completely fall off (figuratively) the points leaders.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE: If the countdown didn't exist, the world champion would already be crowned with Gaige Herrera taking the title in a landslide. Before the countdown "reset" after Indy, Herrera was nearly 300 points ahead of the #2 rider, Matt Smith. But he proved to be slightly mortal, exiting in the semifinals at the first two races of the countdown, and falling 25 points behind Smith. Things turned around at St. Louis as Herrera took his eighth win of the season, and a 34 point lead over Smith. The #3 racer, Richard Gadson, is only 65 points behind, but from there on down the standings, the gaps widen as can be seen by #7 John Hall nearly 200 points adrift.

The latest update as of September 23, 2024

13th annual NHRA Midwest Nationals

The wheels keep turning as the race teams head north from North Carolina to the midwest World Wide Technology Raceway for the NHRA Midwest Nationals. Before we move ahead to that event, let's take a look at how the Countdown To The Championship(s) are going after the second of six events on the "playoff" schedule.

TOP FUEL: The points leader after the second event is Antron Brown, courtesy of back-to-back wins at Reading and Charlotte. The leader at the start of the countdown, Justin Ashley, has fallen back a little and sits 53 points in arrears of Brown. He's followed by the Team Kalitta cars as they've gotten off to a slow start in the countdown, but #4 Doug Kalitta is still only 67 points behind Brown. From there the gaps open up considerably, with #7 Tony Schumacher 173 points behind the leader and closely followed by Tony Stewart and Brittany Force. When you get down to the #10 runner (Billy Torrence), it's more than 200 points and that's starting to get dangerously close to being eliminated from contention.

FUNNY CAR: It's starting to turn into a runaway for the season-long points leader Austin Prock. His closest pursuer, Bob Tasca III is 129 behind already, and the other Force Team car, driven by Jack Beckman sits just behind him in third place. After #3 Matt Hagan (153 points back), the numbers take a steep dive, with and J.R. Todd more than 200 points behind. From there on down to the bottom of the list, most of them are nearly or more than 300 points adrift and without any realistic chance to climb back into contention.

PRO STOCK: It's turned into a four-way battle for the championship, with racers in #5 (Jeg Coughlin) and below, nearly 200 points behind already. The points leader coming into the countdown, Dallas Glenn dropped out of the top spot when Aaron Stanfield won the Reading event. But Glenn came back strong at Charlotte to re-take the lead, but only by the very slim margin of 8 points. Defending champion Erica Enders is just 53 points behind and in 4th place, Greg Anderson is only 74 points in arrears. To show how dominant the top four have been, no one else has made it to the semifinals in the first two races of the countdown.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE: It was a slightly surprising result at Charlotte, with Matt Smith taking the trophy and moving 25 points ahead of Gaige Herrera in the standings. And the closeness continued as #3, Richard Gadson was the runnerup and is only 27 points behind Smith. The winner of the first race of the countdown at Reading, Hector Arana Jr. lost in the 2nd round at Charlotte and sits 115 points behind in 4th place. Lower down, the next four racers range from 154 to 171 points behind. With the consistency that Herrera has shown over the past two seasons it's reasonable to assume that none of them have a realistic shot at climbing into contention. Only one of them, Chase Van Sant has won an event this season and he's already more than 200 points out of the lead.

The latest update as of September 3, 2024

70th annual Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals - Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park - Clermont, IN

It's final eliminations day at the U.S. Nationals and our hard working photographer, Dale Fackler is working hard to capture all the action on the track. The event saw a lot of Canadian content, with Canuck racers top qualifying in Pro Mod, Justin Bond, Top Alcohol Funny Car, Stan Sipos, and third in Top Alcohol Dragster, Shawn Cowie. Other north of the border racers qualified in Top Fuel, Dan Mercier, Pro Stock, Siena Wildgust, and two more in Pro Mod. Taking the #4 spot in that class was Jordan Lazic, and #16 was Scott Wildgust.

After three days of varying weather conditions, including a rainy Friday, Monday morning dawned sunny and cool. The air temperature was down 20 degrees from qualifying, the track temp was down more than 30 degrees, and the density altitude was nearly 2000 ft lower. All very conducive to making BIG horsepower, with the track capable of handling it. For the 16 "survivors" entering eliminations it was time to go BIG or go home.

TOP FUEL - Eliminations Round ONE

(LEFT)The second pair of the round matched father and son, with Steve Torrence facing Billy Torrence. Steve got the party started with the second quickest run of the event, a very good 3.702 - 329.67 to easily handle an up-in-smoke Billy.

(RIGHT) Three pairs later, the newly wrapped "Direct Connection" retro look dragster of Tony Stewart faced Doug Foley. Coming out of qualifying in the highest starting position of his admittedly short Top Fuel career, Stewart cranked out a great 3.723 - 331.53 to take a close win by less than a car length.

(LEFT) With a very different appearance due to the "Arby's" wrap, Clay Millican charged hard off the line and stopped the timers with the quickest run of the round - so far - a 3.695 and top speed of the meet at 333.74 to eliminate Antron Brown who lost traction at half track and slowed.

(RIGHT) Coming into eliminations from the #12 starting spot, Josh Hart appeared to be in deep against #5 qualifier Tripp Tatum. He grabbed a big (.052 to .103) reaction time advantage, and pulled away quickly from Tatum, before hazing the tires and slowing to a 4.018 - 249.49. However, Tatum smoked the tires and was off the throttle before the 330' mark.

FUNNY CAR - Eliminations Round ONE

(LEFT) Leading the way out of the lanes to start Funny Car eliminations, second-generation fuel flopper pilot, Dan Wilkerson faced another "young gun" in Bobby Bode Jr. After a strong launch, Wilkerson suffered a major engine explosion before half track, blowing the body into two pieces, but managed to wrestle the wreckage to a stop without hitting the wall. Bode made his best run of the weekend to escape the conflagration and advance to the quarter-final round.

(RIGHT) This what was left of the body as it went down the return road on a flatdeck truck. It was a sad end to an expensive weekend for Team Wilk as they had another major engine failure during qualifying.

(LEFT) With the top qualifier hat already in his wardrobe, Austin Prock absolutely obliterated the bump spot racer, Chris King. It was no contest as King was out of it early and Prock rocketed to low e.t. of the meet with a brilliant 3.850 - 334.15 timeslip.

(RIGHT) This is how they get some of the awesome overhead shots on the FOX network and NHRA.TV broadcasts. It's a quad-rotor drone with a 4K HD video camera.

(LEFT) Prock was followed by the #2 qualifier Bob Tasca III in what looked like a true David vs Goliath battle. Qualifying near the bottom of the field, Buddy Hull, in the Jim Dunn car was in deep but he pulled off the improbable upset as Tasca smoked the tires just past the 660' mark. It wasn't pretty but Hull scored the first round win of his Funny Car career with a 4.063 - 286.86 pass.

(RIGHT) Taking over the driving chores for the GOAT (John Force), former world champion "Fast" Jack Beckman was looking to start turning on some winlights after debuting in the car at Brainerd. He qualified third at 3.877 and bettered that with a new low e.t. of the event, 3.842 - 332.51 to get a leg up on teammate Austin Prock. In the other lane was long-time veteran Dale Creasy Jr. who made the quickest and fastest run of his career with an excellent 3.950 - 325.92 to give Beckman a good fight.

(LEFT) Needing at least one round win to guarantee a spot in the Countdown to The Championship, Blake Alexander turned on the horsepower to crank out a great 3.883 - 327.74. Winning the Brainerd event two weeks ago, qualifying #4 here and advancing to the second round with lane choice proved that the Jim Head car is a worthy championship contender. His first round opponent, Chad Green left first but lost traction early and slowed.

(RIGHT) It's been another tough season for Cruz Pedregon, but he worked hard to qualify in the top half of the field and earned a holeshot victory over Paul Lee. Pedregon's 3.923 - 323.58 was enough to take a car length win over Lee's hard running Charger. The loss put Lee's chance to gain a berth in the countdown in serious jeopardy.

(LEFT) Sporting another Don Prudhomme tribute paint scheme, Ron Capps hoped for a three-peat at Indy following victories in the two previous editions. He had a slight advantage over opponent J.R. Todd off the line, but fell back a little before Todd smoked the tires as Capps sailed on to a winning 3.946 - 333.33 and a ticket into the next round.

(RIGHT) The round closed with a pressure packed match between Alexis DeJoria and defending world champion Matt Hagan. The most pressure was on Paul Lee, who would be eliminated from the countdown if DeJoria won the round. She qualified just three thousandths slower than Hagan but crew chief Del Worsham turned up the wick and it resulted in a very good 3.886 - 327.98 win over a tire smoking Hagan.

TOP FUEL - Eliminations Round TWO

With the track temperature up nearly 25 degrees, air temp up 10, and the corrected altitude up 600 feet, conditions weren't quite as good as the opening round, but still better than four out of the five qualifying sessions. While it would be a safe bet that there wouldn't be any 3.60 runs, mid to low 3.70's were more than possible.

(LEFT) First up in the second round, and coming off a great run earlier, Tony Stewart faced a tough competitor in Justin Ashley. Stewart was two hundredths slower off the line but the race was over quickly in a cloud of smoke coming off Ashley's slicks, as Stewart ran away to a very convincing 3.747 - 330.88 victory.

(RIGHT) In only her second NHRA national event, Ida Zetterstrom was hoping to go into the semifinals again. She nearly did as she left on Steve Torrence and held the lead until after the 660' mark before dropping a cylinder and losing the race by a third of a car length. Her 3.797 - 317.12 was a very creditable performance, albeit in a losing cause.

Closing the round with a very good 3.753 - 332.18 run, Clay Millican advanced to the semifinals over a tire hazing Josh Hart. Millican's e.t. was only the third best of the round but it was good enough to earn lane choice over Brittany Force.

FUNNY CAR - Eliminations Round TWO

(LEFT) Making another strong run, but having to win on a holeshot is not the usual route to victory for Austin Prock. His 3.879 - 331.61 run was excellent by any standard, but it took an .057 to .084 reaction time advantage to take the win over Alexis DeJoria's valiant, but losing, 3.876 - 327.90 pass.

(RIGHT) The other Force team member, Jack Beckman faced off against veteran Cruz Pedregon for the right to advance to the semifinals. "Fast Jack" slowed a little from his low e.t. in the first round, but a great 3.870 - 330.15 was more than enough to turn on the winlight and grab lane choice over Ron Capps in the semifinals.

TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER - Eliminations Round THREE

After setting low e.t. of the event (5.194) in the second round, Langley, BC Canada's Shawn Cowie looked to advance to his fourth final round at the U.S. Nationals. However, he was still looking for his first event win at the "Big Go". His opponent, Angelle Sampey, hadn't run as well as Shawn, but she left on him and took a holeshot win over Cowie's extremely good 5.205 - 277.54 effort.

TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR - Eliminations Round THREE

(LEFT) As the low qualiifer, Victoria, BC Canada's Stan Sipos earned the bye run in the semifinals. Partnered with ace tuner Les Davenport (Calgary, Alberta), the veteran team took it easy on this run, shutting off before half track and coasting to a winning 6.169 - 170.64 time that gifted lane choice to the winner of the next pair.

(RIGHT) In a great side-by-side race, Sean Bellemeur took a close win over Chris Foster, with an excellent 5.457 - 267.16 to hold lane choice and back up his low e.t. of the meet 5.423 from the previous round. That set things up for a great final round between two very experienced and successful teams.

TOP FUEL - Eliminations Round THREE

With 21 previous final round appearances at NHRA national events, but never at the U.S. Nationals, Clay Millican, in the Rick Ware Racing entry, was looking to take another winlight. Facing Brittany Force, Clay was ready for her and ran away to a very convincing victory when she smoked the tires almost instantly. The scoreboard read 3.750 - 332.18 as Millican advanced to the final.

FUNNY CAR - Eliminations Round THREE

(LEFT) Hoping to make it an all-JFR final round, Austin Prock did his part with another consistent 3.80-range pass, a 3.887 - 332.34 to eliminate a tire-smoking Blake Alexander.

(RIGHT) It wasn't a successful conclusion for Jack Beckman as he smoked the tires early and could only watch Ron Capps run away to a win that ended with the tires breaking loose and the throttle closed. Capps' 4.315 - 252.52 wasn't anywhere near Prock's 3.887 effort, but it was still good enough to move into the final round.

FUNNY CAR - Eliminations FINAL ROUND

With only one racer, Ron Capps, standing between him and the winner'c circle, Austin Prock was primed for a great finish to an outstanding weekend. He stayed in the 3.8-zone with a great 3.885 - 327.98 to turn on the winlight. He left on Capps by nearly three hundredths, and ran half a tenth quicker than Ron's valiant, but losing 3.935 - 331.45 performance.

TOP FUEL - Eliminations FINAL ROUND

Then there was one - race that is - with Clay Millican, in his new Arby's livery, facing multi-time world champion Steve Torrence (not shown). Millican had lane choice, and had been quicker than Torrence in two of the three rounds leading up to the final. Although Torrence left first by a small margin, it was nearly a dead heat at the 330' point before he started hazing the tires and fell back. On the top end it was all Millican as he roared through the lights with a strong 3.792 - 327.82 winning time, while Torrence slowed and blew the engine before stopping the clocks at 4.317 - 192.30. Adding insult to injury, Torrence was fined 10 points for oiling the track, dropping him to #5 in the final "regular season" standings.

That's the complete report from the 70th annual Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals. It was a six-day tour de force of drag racing with great performances, challenging weather and track conditions, large crowds and nearly 1000 competitors. Best of all, we had a great photographer on site for the entire event, providing us with the images to go with the stories that made up our coverage of the most iconic event in drag racing.

The latest update as of September 2, 2024

70th annual Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals - Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park - Clermont, IN

TOP FUEL - Qualifying Session #4

At the start of this penultimate qualifying session the density altitude was under 2700', the track temp was a manageable 119 (F) and the air temp was 81 (F). All of that was good enough for the fuel cars to run well and most likely the conditions they would be facing in eliminations tomorrow.

(LEFT) Down to her second to last chance to gain a berth in eliminations, Krista Baldwin needed to pick up at least half a tenth on her previous best of 3.863. She was looking good early in her run, but dropped cylinders past the 660' mark and slowed to a 3.875 - 269.46 to remain in the #18 position. Up to the point where the pipes went wet, she was almost certainly on her way into the qualified field.

(RIGHT) Already well qualified in the #8 spot with a 3.739, the Leatherwood Distilleries entry of Tony Schumacher slowed down substantially to a 3.947 - 314.31 to stay in #8. It certainly wasn't what they expected to run, but at least one cylinder dropped before the 660' mark.

(LEFT) Despite holding down the #5 rung on the ladder, Tripp Tatum III had only made one really good run in the first three sessions, which gave him a 3.729 e.t. He failed to come close to that number again, smoking the tires early and shutting down to a 5-second timeslip.

(RIGHT) Another failed attempt to improve, as Shawn Reed in the new look "Star Racer" wrap, smoked the tires - a recurring theme so far - and coasted to a 4.475 - 179.66 pass.

(LEFT) Stop me if you've read this before: more tire smoke, this time courtesy of Ida Zetterstrom as she broke traction and posted a 4.548 - 171.90. That left her safely qualified, but near the bottom of the field in the #14 spot going into the final qualifying session later in the day.

(RIGHT) In the near lane we have Clay Millican wearing his new Arby's wrap, while Jasmine Salinas (far lane) is sporting her usual Scrappers Racing look. On the launch, Millican's exhaust flames could be seen clearly in the afternoon light. He made it to the 660' mark before he lost traction and slowed to a 4.015 -236.38, while Salinas started smouldering the hides a few hundred feet earlier before stopping the clocks with a 4.787 - 153.20, leaving her in the precarious bump spot position with just one more chance to get solidly into the show on Monday.

(LEFT) Already solidly qualified in the #7 spot, Justin Ashley bucked the tire smoking trend and laid down the quickest pass of the session with a strong 3.778 - 327.52 that nearly matched his earlier best of 3.738. He was scheduled to face Lex Joon but the Nev'R Quit team decided to sit out the session and get ready for the final round of qualifying.

(RIGHT) Things got back to "normal" in the next pair, as Doug Kalitta (barely visible in the far lane) and Brittany Force both failed to get very far past the 330' mark before the tires lost their grip. Kalitta's performance left him in the #18 position and outside the field, while Force was on top of the heap with her earlier 3.693 best.

(LEFT) Two more swings... and two more misses, as both Dan Mercier (near lane) and Tony Stewart (far lane - barely visible), were... wait for it.... up in smoke well before the 330' timing blocks. Both were in good positions on the ladder, with Stewart #2 and Mercier in at #10.

(RIGHT) The last pair of the session rolled to the line and got a little further down track before losing traction, leaving T.J. Zizzo (near lane) and Josh Hart (far lane) wondering how so many cars could fail to navigate what was appearing to be a very tricky track surface.

With just one qualifying session left, the bump spot was held down by Jasmine Salinas at 3.814, closely followed by the Team Kalitta cars at 3.821 and 3.823. Not much further back were the third and fourth alternates, Krista Baldwin at 3.863 and Lex Joon at 3.927. All the racers were hoping for a lower track temp and better air density readings.

FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #5

Down to their last shots to improve their qualifying session or simply get into the field, all but two of the Funny Cars in the pits made their way into the staging lanes. One of them was the man on the bubble Chris King, a low budget racer from Chicago who elected to save on parts and fuel by sitting out, and the other was fellow Illini resident, Bobby Bode Jr. who was solidly qualified in the #12 spot but was in a similar situation to King, budget-wise. The track temp was still high but the sun was lower in the sky and everyone was hoping for better performances than in the previous session.

(LEFT) Sitting at the very bottom of the list and needing a HUGE jump in performance, Justin Schriefer was in trouble before he got to the 60' clocks. He didn't smoke the tires but simply went silent just off the starting line, ending his weekend.

(RIGHT) The last racer to have a chance to bump into field was Dave Richards, who was facing a bubble time of 4.079. He wasn't far off that mark with a best of 4.105 in an earlier session, but his final shot fell short with a 4.328 - 237.59 showing up on the scoreboards. The run looked strong until about 300' before it started slowing and eventually shut off well before the finish line.

(LEFT) Not satisfied to be in the #13 spot on the ladder, and disappointed at being stuck in the 4-second zone, Chad Green was looking good in his final attempt until well past the 660' mark, but slowed to a 4.124- 239.57 as he failed to improve.

(RIGHT) Qualified in the fast half of the field, Matt Hagan wanted to stay or improve from his #8 position. He did improve, by a hundredth of a second over his earlier best. The clocks stopped at 3.908 - 327.66 but he remained in the #8 spot as his opponent in this session, Dan Wilkerson, (not shown) ran just a little quicker and leapfrogged ahead of Hagan.

(LEFT) Hoping to impress his ex-boss (Don Prudhomme), Ron Capps made a full pass this time, posting his best speed of the meet (his earlier best was only 313.37), with a good 325.92 mph blast, but the e.t. was nearly a tenth slower than his previous best of 3.918. On this run he stopped the clocks with a 3.996 to remain in the #7 slot.

(RIGHT) Slowing a little from his great earlier run, Jack Beckman put down a consistent 3.933 - 322.58 that ended up fifth quickest of the session. It looked like a solid tuneup run for tomorrow's eliminations.

(LEFT) Running alongside Austin Prock in the second to last pair of the session, Blake Alexander made another very good pass at 3.921 - 320.20. It wasn't an improvement on her earlier #4 qualifying 3.890, but it showed the consistency needed to go into eliminations.

(RIGHT) Running in the last pair and hoping to make enough of an improvement to overtake Prock for the top spot on the ladder, Bob Tasca III, in his Mustang-bodied "Dark Horse" entry didn't have the horses (sorry for the very bad pun) to do it, and slowed early to a 4.255 - 222.69 that left him in the #2 position in the field.

TOP FUEL - Qualifying Session #5

The final session for the dragsters opened with the track temp at 114 (F), air density at 3100+ ft, and air temp at 82 (F). Not the greatest conditions, but far better than the first session on Friday and probably close to what tomorrow's later sessions of eliminations would be. All of the 20 cars entered were in the lanes and ready to do their best, some to simply qualify, some to solidify their qualifying positions, and some looking for a good race-day tuneup.

(LEFT) First to test the track was Krista Baldwin, who needed at least a 3.813, and realistically, something in the 3.70's to make the field. She looked good on the launch but started mixing up cylinders early and shut off to a non-qualifying 4.304 - 202.91 to end her weekend.

(RIGHT) Somewhat safely in the field in the #14 spot at 3.776, Ida Zetterstrom wanted to move up a rung or two on the ladder but couldn't quite do it as she posted a solid, but not improved, 3.790 - 324.67 clocking.

(LEFT) Another clean pass was in the cards for Clay Millican, but the scoreboard reading of 3.828 - 327.27 meant that he would start from the #13 position in the field.

(RIGHT) Quebec, Canada's Dan Mercier got a slight case of the "yips" at the starting line, double-stepping the throttle and leaving the line before the tree activated. The result was an NTR (no time recorded), as he remained in the #10 spot with his earlier 3.763 e.t.

(LEFT) Continuing the pattern of most of the racers before him in this session, Shawn Reed slowed from his earlier best of 3.755, stopping the timers with a respectable 3.837 - 322.04 as crew chief Rob Wendland worked at dialing in the car for eliminations.

(RIGHT) While he didn't run quicker than the 3.739 recorded earlier, Tony Schumacher did turn the quickest pass to this point in the session. A 3.777 - 325.06 lit up the scoreboards as he remained in the #8 qualifying position.

(LEFT) Running alongside his teammate and father (Billy Torrence - not shown), Steve Torrence nipped Schumacher's run as he set a new low e.t. and top speed of the final session with a very good 3.773 - 330.72 pass.

(RIGHT) And the hits just kept on coming, as part time runner Tripp Tatum pushed the "Capco clone" car to an even better e.t. than Torrence, with a 3.747 - 328.06 showing up on the timers. It was less than two hundredths slower than his #5 qualifying 3.729 from the 2nd qualifying session.

Closing out the session was #4 qualifier Antron Brown in the 45th anniversary Matco Tools wrapped dragster. He nipped Torrence for the second best run of the session, with a solid 3.771 - 320.66 pass.

The latest update as of September 1, 2024

70th annual Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals - Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park - Clermont, IN

The day started ominously with a several hour rain delay, but after some hard work by the Safety Safari, the track was brought into racing condition, and the fast cars started running. In fact, the entire day was devoted to PRO and Pro Sportsman racing. Our photographer missed the second qualifying session for Top Fuel but got to the track in time for the second go-round for the Funny Cars.

FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #2

With track and air conditions better than last night, as the adjusted altitude was down to 2800', air temp at 77 (F) and track temp at 94 (F), expectations for some great performances were almost certain to happen.

(LEFT) It didn't take long for the big numbers to start showing up, as Bob Tasca III really lit up the scoreboard with a brilliant 3.871 - 336.23 that vaulted over Blake Alexander's low e.t. of the first session (3.890), and put Tasca at the top of the list.

(RIGHT) Going in the other direction on his second attempt was Dale "Peanut" Creasy Jr., as he left hard, started heading for the right side wall, and shut off to a 9-second time.

(LEFT) A close look at the windshield of Chris King's Dodge Charger will show a big hole in it, courtesy of a blower explosion on the burnout. It appeared that someone left the throttle stop disconnected and when the rpm's went sky-high, the blower and windshield suffered.

(RIGHT) Following up her first session 3.987 pass with an even better 3.911 - 323.50 allowed Alexis DeJoria to pick up three spots from #8 to #5 in the qualifying order.

(LEFT) Making a full - or almost full - run this time was Ron Capps as he kept the chutes inside their packs most of the way to the finish line. He picked up nearly a tenth in e.t. with a 3.901 - 313.37 showing up on the scoreboards and moved up five positions to #5, bumping DeJoria back a notch.

(RIGHT) Not missing a beat after four years out of a race car, Jack Beckman ran well at his season debut in Brainerd, and continued that here with a strong 3.877 - 329.10 to move up to the #3 rung on the ladder.

Leading the field after the first qualifying session, Blake Alexander had fallen to #4 by the time he came to the starting line for his second pass. The car ran well for the first 500' but was mixing up cylinders and moving around, forcing him to shut down to a 4.262 - 212.36 result. This run was also the first round of the Mission 2Fast2Tasty Funny Car Challenge, which he lost to opponent Chad Green (not shown).

TOP FUEL - Qualifying Session #3

The air and track temps were up from the earlier session, with the track going up 25 degrees, from 94 to 119 (F), while the air only rose four degrees from 77 to 81 (F). Density altitude also rose nearly 300 ft to 3175 ft, but humidty dropped 4% to 77%. Good, but not great conditions for the fuel cars.

(LEFT) Coming into the session at the bottom of the list in the #20 spot, Josh Hart was feeling the pressure to produce on the big stage that is Indy. The Ron Douglas tuned entry did what it had to do, cranking out a solid 3.772 - 326.63 to grab the #12 spot on the ladder, bumping Doug Kalitta out of the field in the process.

(RIGHT) Safely qualified in the #11 spot, Billy "Captain Capco" Torrence didn't have much luck on this run, smoking the tires early and shutting off to a 5.236 - 187.18 result.

(LEFT) After making a great 3.707 pass in the earlier session, that lifted him all the way up to the #2 spot, Tony Stewart slowed down substantially in this go-round. He made a solid, but slower 3.793 - 327.98 pass to finish his day's work.

(RIGHT) Running in the final pair of the round, Justin Ashley was hoping to climb up the ladder from his #7 position. It wasn't to be though as he lost traction around the 600' mark and slowed to a 4.085 - 260.01 clocking. Besides being in the final pair of the session, Ashley won the Mission 2Fast2Tasty Challenge race over opponent Ida Zetterstrom (not shown). And that put a wrap on Top Fuel for the day, with two more chances to qualify or improve their positions tomorrow.

FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #3

As the afternoon went on, the track temperature kept climbing from 105 (F) in the previous session to 119 (F) when the 3rd qualifying session began.

(LEFT) After a good first session pass of 4.055 on Friday, Dale Creasy Jr. didn't run well in the earlier session today. He failed to improve on this attempt too, with the tires breaking loose just past the 330' mark, slowing him to a 6-second clocking as he remained in the #14 position on the ladder.

(RIGHT) Getting back to a consistently quick performance, Blake Alexander, laid down a very good 3.915 - 314.31 despite the blower belt breaking near the finish line in the Jim Head owned and tuned Mustang. That kept them in the #4 slot on the qualifying list.

(LEFT) Coming into the session on the bump spot, the Jim Dunn team, with Buddy Hull driving, picked up a few hundredths - but remained on the bubble - as a 4.093 - 313.51 flashed up on the scoreboard.

(RIGHT) Looking to repeat in the heat of the day, Matt Hagan nearly matched his earlier 3.918, good for #8 on the ladder, with a solid 3.951 - 326.32 timeslip.

(LEFT) Solidly in the field in the #7 spot, Alexis DeJoria was looking to repeat her earlier 3-second passes and did just that. She stopped the timers with a good for the conditions 3.969 - 322.96 pass that showed serious consistency in performance.

(RIGHT) Another racer that was looking to repeat his earlier best of 3.877, and stay in the #3 position on the qualifying sheet, was "Fast" Jack Beckman. He nearly matched that earlier effort with a great 3.895 - 327.74 that stood up as the best e.t. of the session.

(LEFT) Unable to move up on the qualifying list as he was already #1, Austin Prock nearly matched Beckman's low e.t. of the round, but fell just four thousandths short, with an excellent 3.899 - 328.46 that was the fastest speed of the session.

(RIGHT) Running in the final pair of the round, and simultaneously, the final round of the Mission 2Fast2Tasty Challenge, J.R. Todd was looking to take the challenge win and lay down a good number towards qualifying. He didn't improve on his earlier 3.918 best, but his 3.953 - 325.22 was consistent and quick enough to turn on the win light over opponent Chad Green (not shown).

TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER - Qualifying Session #3 (FINAL)

With just three qualifying sessions, there wasn't a lot of time for teams to dial-in a good qualifying tuneup. Coming into the final round of qualifying, some of the heavy hitters were on the outside, and hoping to get into the field. Included among them were the defending Indy champion, Madison Payne, and #5 in the 2023 national standings, Jackie Fricke.

(LEFT) Down to the last chance to improve, Jared Dreher got off the bump spot with a big improvement from an earlier best of 5.584 to a good 5.355 - 270.81 to jump all the way up the charts to the #5 position in the field.

(RIGHT) With a very good earlier effort of 5.325 that placed her #3 on the ladder, Angelle Sampey stepped up all the way to the top spot with a very quick 5.280 - 274.89 to show that she could run with the best cars in the class.

Running in the final pair of the session, Canada's Shawn Cowie wanted to improve on his #7 placing, based on his earlier best e.t. of 5.352. He did just that, dropping into the 5.20's with a great 5.295 - 273.77 to move into the top quarter of the ladder, in the #3 position.

TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #3 (FINAL)

With only 12 cars entered, everyone was qualified, but battling for position(s) was going to be the order of the day in the final qualifying session for the alky floppers.

(LEFT) Sitting at the bottom of the field with a "best" of 10.525, Annie Whiteley was determined to step up and she certainly did, pounding out a very good 5.560 - 264.18 to elevate her to the #4 spot in the field.

(RIGHT) Following his wife in the next pair was Jim Whiteley and he was in a similar situation to her, with a previous 8.957 leaving him at the bottom of the field as he moved into the stage beams. He launched hard but fought to keep the car going straight, pedaled it and finally got it under control to the tune of 5.895 - 249.90 to pick up one spot to #11 on the qualifying sheet.

(LEFT) Another of the heavy hitters having trouble in qualifying was Sean Bellemeur in the Bartone Bros. entry. He came into the final session in the #9 position with a 5.728 e.t. but quickly erased that mark with a good to move up to the #3 spot.

(RIGHT) Running slower than usual, the Swedish Leander Bros. team, with Ulf Leanders driving was looking to improve on his earlier 5.685 best. He did that, but his 5.648 - 260.41 was only quick enough to hang on to the #9 spot in the order.

Saving the very best for last, the Victoria, BC, Sipos & Davenport entry, with Stan Sipos driving, and legendary Les Davenport tuning, was sitting in the #8 position with a 5.589 best. He not only improved on that but he became the first car into the 5.40's with an excellent 5.493 - 266.58 to claim the top spot in the field. A great way to close qualifying for the Top Alcohol cars.

Here's the photos from Friday's action.

TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #1

The first really fast cars of the event made their first qualifying sessions, with the Funny Cars leading the way. Sadly there were only 12 cars in the field.

(LEFT) Making a strong statement with a very good 5.599 - 261.88 pass, Iowa's Chris Foster landed in the #2 spot at the end of the session.

(RIGHT) A familiar face on the national scene, Bob McCosh ran into some serious tire shake, forcing him to shut off and post a 7-second time.

Finishing the session, the "Killer B's" pirate ship, with Sean Bellemeur at the tiller, put down a decent run at 5.787 - 256.65. Decent in that he ran into tire shake, had to pedal, but still managed to get to the finish line as the 5th quickest car of the round.

TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER - Qualifying Session #1

With 18 cars in the pits, and only 16 spots available in the field, there was at least a small amount of drama to see who was going to be racing in eliminations. As the cars rolled out of the staging lanes, the track temp was already at 125 (F) and corrected altitude reading over 3600 feet, not the best conditions for great performances.

(LEFT) First out of the lanes was the blower car of Brandon Greco, and he set the tone by laying down a good opening pass of 5.376 - 269.78.

(RIGHT) Less than a year into her driving career, Arizonan Shaundra Blinzler made a good opening pass of 5.452 - 269.19.

(LEFT) Not having a great start to his weekend, Maryland's Dan Dietrich in one of the five blown alcohol cars in the field, stuttered off the line and limped to a 19-second clocking.

(RIGHT) Coming all the way from the West Coast of Canada, perennial championship contender Shawn Cowie rattled the tires hard before the 330' mark and shut down to a 14-second clocking that left him outside the field at the end of the session.

(LEFT) One of the horde of A/Fuel cars in the field, the John Finke owned and tuned car of Jackie Fricke had no luck as the car lurched off the line in a haze of unburned fuel and idled down the track to a 12-second time.

(RIGHT) Having a better result was Pennsylvania's John Ausherman who didn't have a perfect run but managed to crank out a respectable 5.584 - 256.36 to grab the #10 spot on the ladder.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE - Qualifying Session #1

(LEFT) After missing the last four races, Ryan Oehler shook off the rust with a decent 7.097 - 188.28 pass to take the #10 position on the qualifying list.

(RIGHT) Getting some last minute coaching from teammate Matt Smith, the Scrappers Racing rider, Jianna Evaristo, became the first in the session to break into the 6-second zone with a 6.939 e.t. and very fast 198.15 mph. The speed held up as the fastest of the session and the e.t. put her in the #4 rung on the ladder.

PRO STOCK - Qualifying Session #1

Our Pro Stock coverage is rather skimpy as the hard working photographer had to take a break from the oppressive heat and humidity. He did manage to capture veteran Larry Morgan launching on his way to a 6.733 - 205.85 pass that left him outside the qualified field in the #18 slot.

FUNNY CAR - Qualifying Session #1

As the sun dipped down and the lights came on, the staging lanes filled with Nitro Funny Cars, and their longer wheelbased brethren, Top Fuel Dragsters. As the flopper session commenced, the density altitude had dropped to 3300' and the air temp was down to 83 (F). And it would only get better as the session progressed.

(LEFT) Still working on the tuneup, the Chris King team made a huge leap forward with career best numbers of 4.079 - 302.21 on his first pass of the event. To put those numbers in perspective, his previous top speed was only 233 mph.

(RIGHT) Another team that's been working on their tuneup for the better part of two years, the Paul and Dave Richards car made a decent run to the 600' mark before shutting down to a 4.502 - 205.72 clocking.

(LEFT) Jumping to the top of the qualifying sheet with a great 3.901 - 325.53 run was Cruz Pedregon as he opened his account on a high note.

(RIGHT) Not quite matching some of the earlier runs, Paul Lee stopped the timers at 4.004 - 293.28. The numbers were a little less than expected, but he was off the throttle before the finish line.

(LEFT) Sporting a jungle themed "Jackal" wrap, Dan Wilkerson was a little slow early but finished strong with a 313.58 speed, coupled with a decent 4.026 elapsed time.

(RIGHT) Another new look was on the Ron Capps car, with their second annual Indy tribute to the legendary Don "The Snake" Prudhomme. Capps ran strong to the 800' mark before one of the chutes came out, slowing him to a 3.997 - 300.73 that placed him #8 on the list.

(LEFT) And the specialty wraps just kept coming as Matt Hagan had a total "Direct Connection" look on his car. Unfortunately it didn't run as good as it looked as he lost traction before the 660' timing blocks, causing him to lift and coast to a 4.837 - 164.59 that ultimately left him in the first alternate position at the end of the session.

(RIGHT) Closing out the session going side-by-side with points leader Austin Prock (not shown), Bob Tasca III ran strong until getting out of the throttle just past the 660' mark and coasting across the finish stripe with a 4.171 - 230.96 showing on the scoreboard.

TOP FUEL - Qualifying Session #1

There were 20 cars in the lanes and only 16 spots available for the eliminations field. While it was important to put down a good pass under the evening conditions, there were four more qualifying sessions over the next two days to make up for a lack of performance in this first session. After seeing some very good numbers from the Funny Cars, the dragster teams were looking for some very quick and fast runs.

(LEFT) Making only his third appearance of the season, and first since Norwalk in June, Tripp Tatum III" made some great numbers in the first 330' but lost traction just after that point and shut off to a 4.473 at 174.21 mph.

(RIGHT) With similar attendance figures as Tatum, T.J. Zizzo prepared to make a major impression on the Indy fans and did so until just before the finish line. He lost the blower belt shortly after the 660' mark and stopped the timers with a 3.902 at only 266.32 mph.

(LEFT) Three pairs later, Brittany Force dropped a bomb on the field, rocketing to the top of the ladder with a 3.740 - 334.32. To underline those numbers, she was running 292.39 mph at the 660' and 3.017 seconds at that point. Very strong numbers.

(RIGHT) In the next pair, Top Fuel "rookie" Tony Stewart made a good opening run at 3.839 - 319.52 that placed him #8 on the qualifying list.

Next up is Saturday's photo coverage - coming soon

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